His Excellency the Minister of Finance Mohammed Abdullah Al-Jadaan and His Excellency the Minister of Economy and Finance for the Italian Republic Daniele Franco opened today, Thursday 3 June 2, 2021, the high-level “G20 Infrastructure Investors Dialogue: Financing Sustainable Infrastructure for the Recovery." The event gathered a number of G20 Finance Ministers, international and regional organizations, and major investors and asset managers representing the private sector.
This event comes as a continuation of the G20's efforts and the leading role of that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during its G20 Presidency in 2020. The Dialogue with investors, this year, aims to capitalize on the positive results that the G20 achieved last year through the numerous events, including the G20 Infrastructure Investment Symposium in Riyadh December 2019. Moreover, this event signals that the current G20 Presidency, the Italian G20 Presidency, is maintaining and adopting these efforts.
In his opening remarks, Minister Al-Jadaan emphasized that Infrastructure plays a significant role in boosting economic activities and fundamentally underpins productivity, providing a solid basis for strong, balanced, sustainable and inclusive growth. He pointed out that securing financing for sustainable development and quality infrastructure are ongoing concerns for the G20 and that the persistent infrastructure financing gap calls for swift actions in this area. Al-Jadaan noted that one of the most important initiatives that the G20 undertook during the Saudi G20 Presidency last year was the "G20/OECD Report on the Collaboration with Institutional Investors and Asset Managers on Infrastructure." The G20 Leaders, Finance Ministers, and Central Bank Governors welcomed the Report.
His Excellency touched upon the Kingdom's efforts in this area and pointed out that the Kingdom has recently announced a privatization plan that includes a pipeline of 160 projects across 16 sectors, including asset sales and public-private partnerships. He said, “Our aim is to secure about 55 billion US Dollars out of this privatization plan, of which 16.5 billion US Dollars in the form of public-private partnerships." He added, “We are looking to foster stronger partnership with the private sector on the management and financing of health infrastructure and services, as well as city transportation networks, school buildings, airport services, and water desalination and sewage treatment plants through these partnerships. The driving force is to create a better, more cost-effective, and efficient delivery, reducing material and energy usage for a better planet."
It is worth noting that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a member of the G20 Troika, and that the Kingdom is keen to support the G20's efforts to achieve strong, balanced, sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Moreover, the Kingdom supports the efforts aiming to bolstering the cooperation between the public and private sectors in infrastructure investment.
The G20 Infrastructure Investors Dialogue is organized virtually by the Italian G20 Presidency together with the OECD and the D20 Long-Term Investors Club. The dialogue aims to open more investment opportunities and highlight the existing initiatives and good practices of the multilateral, national banks, development banks, international organizations, governments and the private sector in supporting the participation of private investors in infrastructure and in working towards integrating sustainability consideration into infrastructure. In addition, the G20 Infrastructure Investors Dialogue is an opportunity to present an action-oriented agenda for the dialogue with investors on investing in transformative infrastructure, which will be touched on in the Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors Meeting this coming October