(MENAFN- Mid-East.Info) Saudi Arabia has opened its doors for business in recent years.
It continued its drive for investment last month by launching new special economic zones, designed to attract foreign capital in areas such as manufacturing, logistics, and mining.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabi announced a slew of new investments into these zones totaling $12.6 billion.
On CNN's Connect the World, host Becky Anderson sat down with the country's Minister for Investment, His Excellency Khalid Al-Falih, to discuss these new launches as well as the Kingdom's foreign direct investment numbers.
Key quotes from Min. Al-Falih:
On the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) for Saudi Arabia:
“FDI is very important for the kingdom, not because we're capital short. Unlike many developing countries, the Kingdom has been and to a large degree continues till today to be long on capital. And it's well known that the kingdom is a major investor abroad.
But FDI is catalytic. We don't want to measure the FDI necessarily by the percent contribution that it will make in terms of capital flows, but more about the quality of FDI and what it's going to do. And we've seen an increased uptake by companies that are owner operators of significant global franchises in terms of technology, market brands, that are looking at the kingdom as a destination and as a hub as a platform from which to access markets.”
On the regional headquarter program:
“the regional headquarter program is not only beneficial to the kingdom, and it is and I think it will complete the ecosystem. The Kingdom alone cannot provide everything that investors want. Investors want to be with other investors and they want to be with professional companies...and the beneficiaries are the companies themselves, first and foremost. The good news is there is a huge uptake.”
“You ask about taxes, there will be no additional tax burden on any company that chooses to make Saudi Arabia, the regional headquarter that has already set the regulations that have been approved. And we will provide other incentives that will be significant for companies to make their move.”
On the Kingdom's relationship with China:
“China is by far our biggest trading partner. They have been growing over time it's been steady growth. The trend lines have been there for 30 years. Today they import more oil from us by fire than any other country.”
“And just to give you a metric to give you an indication of the scale, our trade relationship with China is larger than the combined trade relationship with the U.S. and the EU combined... So it's [an] interdependence...The Chinese see us as the most reliable trading partner in the Middle East.”
On whether the Kingdom's relationship with China impacts its relationship with other countries:
Our relationship with China is not in any way at the expense of our relationship with the U.S. or with EU, or vice versa. We ourselves as a strong, independent rising middle power, and for us to be that significant economy and in the world, we have to have strong relationship with strong economic powers in the world.”
On potential economic headwinds ahead:
“Political and economic headwinds are part of the landscape we're used to. We've been through economic shocks, global regional, we've been through oil market shocks. And we've been through unfortunately, a number of security issues here in the region that is well known. And we have the resilience to absorb them and to navigate our way around them and continue on our trajectories.”