His Excellency Dr. Ryadh Alkhareif, the Deputy Minister for International Affairs, participated in “The 24th Arab-German Business Forum” organized by the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ghorfa) held in Berlin during 4-6 October 2021. The forum was attended by high-level participants from the Arab World and Germany, fostering in-depth discussions on key sectors that create opportunities and growth between both sides.
In his keynote speech, His Excellency Dr. Ryadh Alkhareif noted that the topics brought up in the forum are very significant, as they enable to examine new ways and opportunities to build deeper trade & investment links between the Arab and German private sectors.
Dr. Alkhareif highlighted the robustness of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s economy, and reaffirmed that the Kingdom addressed the global crisis from a position of strength. He indicated that the Saudi government has laid the foundation for a strong private sector-led growth, underpinned by Vision 2030. Dr. Alkhareif stated, “Given the strong fundamentals of the Saudi economy, we now see a healthy recovery. Looking at the 1st half of this year, the real non-oil GDP grew by 5.4%, within which, the private sector grew by 7.5%, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. This is a clear sign that local demand is very strong, and hence investment opportunities in the Kingdom are abundant.”
On the future of investment in the Kingdom, Dr. Alkhareif reiterated that the future is very bright, pointing out that the Kingdom is highly-ranked according to the Human Development Index (HDI) and that it was ranked 2nd globally among the G20 countries in the Digital Competitiveness Report for this year. He also emphasized that investing in the Kingdom provides a unique opportunity for the integration into a G20 economy with strong growth potential, emphasizing that Saudi companies possess a strong set of capabilities and assets in many areas. These include investment generated by Vision 2030, including through the Privatization Program, the Public Investment Fund, the Shareek program, and the Saudi capital markets. He also added that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has launched the Green Saudi Initiative and the Green Middle East Initiative, where both will bring many investment opportunities.
It is worth noting that the recent years has witnessed numerous successful partnerships between Germany and the Arab world. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was the guest of honor at the Arab-German Business Forum last year, where this year it is the State of Libya.