Saudi Arabia attracted SAR 8.1 billion ($2.1 billion) in foreign direct investment in the first quarter of 2023, marking a 10.2 percent growth year-on-year (YOY), showed a government report.
The bulletin disclosed that the Kingdom’s GDP grew by 3.8 percent in Q1 of the year compared to the same period last year.
Moreover, the workforce participation of Saudi citizens stood at 52.4 percent, while unemployment touched 8.5 percent.
The Ministry of Economy and Planning revealed that the deposits of authorities, government, and semi-government parties in May reached SAR 623 billion ($166 billion), an increase of 19.4 percent on a monthly basis.
Furthermore, the volume of banks’ liabilities to the government amounted to SAR 528 billion ($140.8 billion) in May, an increase of 9 percent YOY.
Total consumer spending through ATMs (POS and SADAD) in May amounted to approximately 170.1 billion riyals ($45.3 billion), up 13.8 percent YOY
The bulletin further highlighted a 2.6 percent growth in consumer loans to SAR 448 billion ($119.4 billion) in Q1 compared to the year-ago period.
The Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (MODON) has attracted new investments from the private sector at a value of SAR2.77 billion ($738.6 million) during Q2 2023. This was a 23 percent jump from the SR2.26 billion ($602.6 million) recorded during Q2 2022.
MODON said that 1,226 foreign investment deals came from 67 countries, mainly Egypt, Jordan, India, the US, and the UK.
The foreign factories are focused on several main industrial activities such as the manufacture of shaped metal products, the manufacture of rubber and plastic products, other non-metallic mineral products, chemical industry and its products, in addition to the manufacture of food products.
The number of factories exceeded 6,000 during the Q2 of 2023. Industrial contracts also witnessed a 23% growth in the same period.
MODON added that Jeddah - located in the west of the Kingdom - was allocated the greatest number of contracts, comprising 29 percent of the overall agreements. Al-Kharj - located in the center of the Kingdom - issued 13 percent of total agreements.
Among the industries, the food sector secured the most contracts in the second quarter, representing 17 percent, followed by the mining sector at 9 percent. While the chemicals and rubbers sectors claimed 6 percent of contracts each, the machinery and equipment sector secured 5 percent of agreements issued in the second quarter of 2023.
MODON has also developed qualitative capabilities to attract global and regional investments, which contributed to increasing the total number of ready-made factories to reach 1,263 units.
The allocated industrial areas increased by 100 percent and the logistical contracts recorded 234.
In order to achieve its strategic goals of providing services and products that enhance the investments of MODON’s Shareek, achieve business sustainability, and create an enabling investment environment, MODON has made during the Q2 of 2023 several achievements, of which, is the launching of MODON Oasis project in Yanbu on an area of 500,000 square meters.
