Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said on Wednesday the next six months, and possibly six years, would be "very good" for the Gulf Arab countries but "very difficult" for the wider Middle East.
Speaking at Riyadh's Future Investment Initiative (FII) forum, he said the next six months would be difficult on a global scale and it was Saudi Arabia's role to help the region.
He added it had sent aid including food and energy to low-income countries and others.
He noted that the world's energy transition away from fossil fuels could take as much as 30 years, necessitating continued investment in conventional resources to ensure security of supply.
"The thinking about energy and renewables and climate change... (has) now became more realistic that actually transition will take not only a year, not 10 years, (but) possibly 30 years," al-Jadaan said.
"So, we need to invest in our energy security, but at the same time not neglect climate change."
"In the region... we are making a lot of efforts to actually reduce emissions... We are investing as much in conventional energy but also investing in climate change initiatives," he added.
Bahrain's Finance Minister Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa told the gathering that Gulf countries needed to build their production and export capabilities, since the majority of their non-oil GDP was currently built on consumption and imports.
