Saudi industry capable of absorbing $7.2 billion foreign investment

Saudi Arabia holds a 1 percent share of the overall worldwide investment, and is capable of absorbing up to $7.2 billion direct foreign investments annually, said Saleh Al-Husseiny, the Saudi undersecretary of industry and electricity, quoted in Al-Jazirah newspaper. 

Al-Husseiny estimated that the overall worldwide investment in 1998 amounted to $726 billion. Approximately 57 percent of the total investment projects in Saudi Arabia are joint projects. 

On August 15 Al-Hayat reported the governor of the Saudi public investment authority, Emir Abdullah Bin Faisal Bin Turki, as saying that working permits had been granted for a number of new investment projects of which four were foreign projects, based entirely on foreign capital. –(Albawaba-MEBG)