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Riyadh’s FII Day One: 23 Agreements Worth $15 Billion

A view shows branded oil tanks at Saudi Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
A view shows branded oil tanks at Saudi Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
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Riyadh’s FII Day One: 23 Agreements Worth $15 Billion

A view shows branded oil tanks at Saudi Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
A view shows branded oil tanks at Saudi Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

The first day of the Future Investment Initiative (FII), currently held in Riyadh, witnessed the signing of 23 agreements worth a total of $15 billion by foreign and Saudi companies.

The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) said in a statement on Wednesday that one of the aims of the FII was to attract foreign investment to the Kingdom, adding that companies from all continents have signed agreements to invest in an array of fields.

Saudi Aramco announced its intention to establish the Jazan Power Joint Venture. The JV will be 46 percent owned by Air Products, 25 percent by ACWA Power, 20 percent by Saudi Aramco and 9 percent by Air Products Qudra.

In addition, the Company signed seven MoUs at the FII in Riyadh on Tuesday, including a collaboration MoU worth $1 billion with Tubacex Group, to invest in pipe weld overlay and cladding services manufacturing facilities in the Kingdom.

Another MoU was signed between Saudi Aramco and Baker Hughes to collaborate on artificial intelligence and digital transformation, worth $230 million.

Aramco Senior Vice President of Technical Services, Ahmad A. Al Saadi, reaffirmed the Company’s position, saying: “Saudi Aramco aims to promote business investment opportunities through technology across the Kingdom’s energy services sector ecosystem. The agreements signed today support the Kingdom’s plans to develop industrial zones, create jobs and attract foreign direct investment, as well as drive economic diversification.”

The statement by Aramco noted that the MoUs “represent new collaborations with companies from six countries. These include France, Norway, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain and the United States.”

“The MoUs are intended to support Saudi Aramco’s operations and Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification strategy by increasing the efficiency of technology used in upstream, downstream and engineering services. In the long term, these agreements aim to help improve sustainability and technological efficiency throughout the value chain,” the statement added.

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IMF Says International Community Should Provide Grants to Lebanon

Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs, after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon October 25, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs, after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon October 25, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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IMF Says International Community Should Provide Grants to Lebanon

Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs, after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon October 25, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs, after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon October 25, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

The international community should work to end the conflict in the Middle East and provide grants to Lebanon, the head of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia department has said.

Jihad Azour spoke to AFP in Washington, where the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are currently taking place.

In updated economic estimates, the Fund slightly downgraded its outlook for economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa to 2.1 percent this year, while maintaining its 4.0 percent growth outlook for 2025.

However, these estimates do not take into account the economic impact of the recent escalation of conflict in southern Lebanon, where Israel has invaded to fight Hezbollah.

Azour, a former Lebanese finance minister, noted that the most severely affected places, including Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, were facing a "huge humanitarian problem" which has devastated their economies.

"You have massive loss in output, you have a massive destruction in infrastructure, and you have a huge set of needs for additional spending, for shelter, for health and so on," he said.

"We expect that growth will be negative in those cases, and we expect that the recovery would take longer to materialize," he added.

The IMF has suspended its forecasts for the Lebanese economy, citing an "unusually high degree of uncertainty." But a recent United Nations Development report estimated that the country's GDP would be 9.2 percent smaller as a "direct consequence" of the conflict.

"You have massive destruction of infrastructure in a large region, which is the south, and mass destruction of livelihood, because this is an agricultural region that was severely affected," Azour said, adding that almost 20 percent of Lebanon's population had been displaced.

"We encourage the international community, we encourage the friends of Lebanon, to provide grants," he continued, calling on the international community "to put its utmost effort in order to solve the problem, in order to reduce the suffering of people."

For countries indirectly affected by the conflict, like Jordan and Egypt, the impact of Israel's ongoing military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon has been felt differently.

While Egypt has been hit hard by a 70 percent fall in revenues from ships traversing the Suez Canal, Jordan's economy has suffered from a steep decline in tourism, Azour said.