Investment Requests in Saudi Industries Exceed $13 Billion

A worker housing project in Yanbu. (SPA)
A worker housing project in Yanbu. (SPA)
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Investment Requests in Saudi Industries Exceed $13 Billion

A worker housing project in Yanbu. (SPA)
A worker housing project in Yanbu. (SPA)

Official information revealed on Monday that requests for investment in Saudi basic and manufacturing industries in the cities of Jubail and Yanbu amounted to SAR 50 billion ($13.3 billion) during the first quarter of 2020, despite the repercussions of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Royal Commission president for the two cities, Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Saadan, said that the Kingdom’s effective steps to protect citizens and residents from the pandemic and the early and firm precautionary measures it has taken have reduced its negative effects on various aspects of life.

Al-Saadan was speaking during a virtual meeting held on Monday with the members of the National Committee for Industry in the Council of Saudi Chambers, with the participation of the executive heads of the Royal Commission, to answer the questions of businessmen and investors from different regions of the Kingdom.

He noted that the industry and mineral wealth sector was the target of great initiatives to support and stimulate the economy and reduce operating costs and financial obligations to the private sector.

Al-Saadan explained that shipping lines that connect the industrial city of Yanbu with the port of Jeddah and East African ports would serve many investors through the quick access to customers and markets at an appropriate cost and would greatly increase the volume of exports and imports in the future.

With regards to employment in industrial areas, he stated that the Royal Commission was working on a development project that targets the workers’ residential areas.



Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."