Saudi Arabia Partners with Local, Global Firms to Market Investments

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia Partners with Local, Global Firms to Market Investments

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Saudi government has granted the new Investment Marketing Authority the authorization to enlist experts and specialists from both local and global companies and institutions.

This move aims to provide professional tools and products, leveraging their expertise in their respective fields. Additionally, it seeks to foster partnerships that align with development goals between local and foreign investors.

Last week, the Cabinet approved the regulation of the Saudi Investment Marketing Authority.

This decision is part of efforts to position the Kingdom as a world-class investment hub in line with the goals of Vision 2030, which seeks to diversify the economy, enhance its international competitiveness, and build a prosperous and sustainable economy in alignment with the National Investment Strategy’s plans and objectives.

According to sources, the Board of Directors of the Saudi Investment Marketing Authority will exercise its role in determining financial charges in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the Non-Oil Revenue Development Center.

This will remain in effect until the issuance of governance regulations for imposing such fees for services and activities offered by entities authorized by law to levy them.

The authority will prepare general policies related to its activities, develop a strategy for investment marketing, and devise the necessary plans and programs for implementation. It will also raise issues requiring further procedural actions.

The authority will begin work on marketing investment opportunities both within the Kingdom and internationally, highlighting the advantages, opportunities, and incentives of local investments. The authority is empowered to delegate tasks related to investment marketing to the relevant entities.

Additionally, the authority will manage a unified national identity for investment marketing and attraction to Saudi Arabia, in coordination with the Ministry of Investment and other relevant bodies. This will ensure consistent messaging, marketing, and media efforts, and propose amendments to relevant regulations within its mandate, submitting them for legal processing.

Among its duties, the new authority will propose amendments to related regulations, support investment marketing activities carried out by ministries, relevant entities, and the private sector, and develop and implement media plans both domestically and internationally.

Minister of Investment Eng. Khalid Al-Falih said that the authority will contribute to stimulating foreign direct investment flows. He said it will work as an important tributary enhancing the national efforts made to support the investment environment.

“The authority will undertake the task of marketing investment opportunities inside and outside the Kingdom and in various sectors, in cooperation and partnership with all the leading entities in these sectors. The authority will adopt the latest technologies and strategies in the field of investment marketing,” he said.

Al-Falih stressed that the authority will contribute to stimulating foreign direct investment flows, as well as to enhance national investments, and support national investors.

“This will support economic growth, provide quality job opportunities, and enhance innovation and knowledge transfer, which will positively reflect on the sustainability of development in the Kingdom and the competitiveness of its economy,” he said.



Lebanon's Finance Minister: There Will be a New Deal with IMF

A technician installs solar panels atop 15 prefabricated cabins offered by an NGO to residents whose homes were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the latest war in the southern Lebanese village of Ramia near the southern border on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
A technician installs solar panels atop 15 prefabricated cabins offered by an NGO to residents whose homes were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the latest war in the southern Lebanese village of Ramia near the southern border on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
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Lebanon's Finance Minister: There Will be a New Deal with IMF

A technician installs solar panels atop 15 prefabricated cabins offered by an NGO to residents whose homes were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the latest war in the southern Lebanese village of Ramia near the southern border on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
A technician installs solar panels atop 15 prefabricated cabins offered by an NGO to residents whose homes were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the latest war in the southern Lebanese village of Ramia near the southern border on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

Lebanese Finance Minister Yassine Jaber said on Wednesday there would be a new deal between his country and the International Monetary Fund, according to a statement released by the finance ministry after a meeting with a visiting IMF mission.
Jaber said the meeting with Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, the head of the IMF mission visiting Lebanon, was "good" and "saw transparency.”
Lebanon has been in deep economic crisis since 2019, when its financial system collapsed under the weight of state debts, prompting a sovereign default in 2020 and freezing ordinary depositors out of their savings in the banking system.
Beirut reached a draft funding deal with the IMF in 2022 - contingent on reforms that authorities failed to deliver.
"I expressed the Lebanese government's determination to carry out all necessary reforms. Not because someone asked us to but because the country needs such reforms," Jaber said.
According to Reuters, he did not disclose details of the deal but said the government was tasked with outlining a new plan with the Washington-based lender.
He said the government presented its priorities in the upcoming period to the IMF, including appointing a central bank governor.
The IMF would visit Lebanon again in early April if a new central bank governor is appointed, Jaber said.
He said further talks would be held with the IMF on Thursday in Lebanon.