Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef has revealed that the Kingdom intends to double industrial exports by 2030 and anticipates that the number of factories will reach 36,000 by 2035.
He made his remarks on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative (FII).
The minister expressed Saudi Arabia’s focus on several key elements in the National Industrial Strategy, announced recently by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Al-Khorayef said that the new strategy has global dimensions concerning investment through its plans to provide an attractive investment environment for investors that enables them to obtain opportunities with competitive returns.
He added that the strategy will achieve more economic diversification, providing quality jobs for citizens, and motivating them to develop their talents to contribute to building a pioneering and sustainable industrial sector.
“The National Strategy benefits the international side, as it combines product and quality, and at the same time combines our goals and ambitions, and supports the products industry using modern and unique technologies, taking into account when designing them that they are practical, implementable, realistic and actual,” Al-Khorayef said.
He indicated that it is a national strategy due to its goals and ambitions that go beyond the industrial sector, and its contribution to creating a solid and strong industrial economy that attracts investment, in line with the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
The minister explained that the strategy focuses on the capabilities that the Kingdom enjoys, including the national resources such as oil, mineral resources and chemicals, young talents, and a distinguished geographical location.
He concluded: “We are determined to double our industrial exports by 2030, and raise the number of our factories to around 36,000 factories by 2035, in addition to our participation in global supply chains, and to be a global center to reach the Middle Eastern, African and Asian markets.”
The industrial strategy focuses on 12 sub-sectors and provides more than 800 known investment opportunities worth about one trillion Saudi riyals ($266.6 billion).
The strategy seeks to expand industrial GDP almost three-fold and industrial exports value to 557 billion riyals ($148.5 billion).
It seeks to attract new industrial investments of 1.3 trillion riyals (about $346.6 billion), with high-tech exports increasing six-fold, and create tens of thousands of high-value and high-tech jobs in the sector.
