Saudi eyes $10bn investments from big supply chain initiative
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HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, today (October 23) announced the launch of the Global Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (GSCRI), a key initiative aimed at making the kingdom a location of choice for leading global industrial companies looking to drive competitive advantage and improve business resilience.
The GSCRI is one of the initiatives of Saudi Arabia’s National Investment Strategy, launched in October last year to accelerate efforts to make the kingdom a global investment powerhouse.
The initiative will enable global investors to make optimal use of the kingdom’s natural resources and untapped potential and form strong relationships with regional and global markets.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the GSCRI was aimed at turning the kingdom into an ideal destination for all investors in supply chains, through several steps.
It aims to attract SR40 billion ($10.7 billion) worth of quality, industrial and service investments in global supply chains into the kingdom within the launching phase.
Saudi Arabia is also working to implement regulatory and procedural reforms in various aspects, which, in turn, will contribute to further improving the investment environment and increasing its attractiveness and competitiveness as well as make the investment play an essential role to achieve economic growth and diversity in light of Saudi Vision 2030 objectives, he stated.
According to him, the new initiative will provide a great opportunity to achieve common successes. Working along with other development initiatives that have been launched in recent years, it will help to enable investors, from all sectors, to benefit from the kingdom's resources and capabilities and support and develop these value chains.
"It will also build successful investments, which will give greater flexibility to economies, businesses and consumers around the world," he noted.
The strategy of continuous enhancement of the investment environment will be coupled with attractive opportunities and a unique incentives budget, including that of SR10 billion in financial and non-financial incentives.
These steps include identifying and developing investment opportunities and presenting them to investors, establishing a number of special economic zones in the near future, through which an attractive environment can be created for investors, in addition to attracting the regional headquarters of international companies to the kingdom.
It will ensure the provision and sustainability of supply chain access to all parts of the world effectively and with highly competitive advantages. Finally, the GSCRI will bring the kingdom closer to achieving its Vision 2030 aspirations to be a top 15 global economy by 2030 and leave a prosperous legacy for future generations.
The Saudi Crown Prince said the pandemic, trade disputes and the geopolitical landscape have broken or weakened global supply chains, driving up commodity prices and disrupting production and distribution.
This initiative aims to strengthen the position of KSA in the global economy, and to mitigate the impact of global disruptions, he stated.
According to Council for Economic and Development Affairs, the new supply chain resilience move will leverage the kingdom’s resources, infrastructure and location to bring greater resilience to economies and companies across Europe, the Americas and Asia, while further enhancing Saudi Arabia’s position in the global economy.
The kingdom offers a strong value proposition to investors across several key dimensions. It provides a resilient economy which is the largest in the Middle East and the fastest growing in the G20, a strategic location at the heart of three continents and a source of key raw materials for manufacturing.
Saudi Arabia provides a robust logistics infrastructure across industrial cities, airports and ports, with ambitious expansion plans underway as part of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy.
The country’s digital infrastructure too has witnessed significant progress, with widespread high-speed internet coverage and 5G now available to nearly 80% of the population thanks to the Saudi Arabia' s young, educated and ambitious workforce. Of the total population, about 60% are under the age of 30.
In addition to these advantages, KSA has launched many ambitious plans and programmes that have already begun to be implemented, with the aim of achieving sustainability, protecting the environment and confronting climate change.
These include the “Green Saudi Arabia” and “Green Middle-East” initiatives, and the programme to diversify the energy mix used in generating electricity, so that the proportion of renewable energy in electric power production will be 50% by 2030.-TradeArabia News Service
