On 10th October 2017, His Excellency Mohammed Al Jadaan, Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia, was invited to give the keynote address at the Saudi Arabian Investment Forum in New York, hosted by JP Morgan and attended by many leading Saudi company executives and CEOs of international financial firms.
The theme of His Excellency’s speech was ‘Saudi Arabia’s Macro-Economic Policy and the critical role it plays in achieving Vision 2030.’ At a time of exciting change for Saudi Arabia, as the Kingdom’s sweeping reforms begin to modernise and diversify the economy away from reliance on hydrocarbons, His Excellency was pleased to outline Saudi Arabia’s grand vision for this change, Vision 2030, the progress it has made so far, and the myriad opportunities for foreign investment which it represents.
Mr Al Jadaan began by acknowledging that “Saudi Arabia is in the midst of an unprecedented economic transformation,” and that “Vision 2030 provides a very clear roadmap of where we want to be and how we will get there.”
“Significant progress has already been made,” he said. “Most notably in the wide-ranging reforms that have recently been implemented - from phasing out subsidies to creating opportunities for SMEs, from preparing government owned enterprises for privatization and public private partnerships to transforming the public investment fund into one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.”
His Excellency told the audience that “we are already beginning to see the fruits of these efforts reflected in a more stabilised business environment and higher investor confidence.”
The strong fundamentals of the Saudi economy can also be seen in the Kingdom’s successful international and domestic debt issuances: “Our first dollar-denominated Sukuk offering in April drew significant interest from our international investors with an order book in excess of $33 billion. This issue, which was sized at $9 billion, as the world’s largest Sukuk sale,” the Minister explained.
The speech went on to discuss the significant progress of Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Plan towards the country’s stated goal of a balanced budget through fiscal reform: “For the first half of the year, revenues have risen 29% while spending has been reduced by 2%, resulting in a sharp decline in the deficit.”
His Excellency closed the address by sharing his excitement about “what is still to come.” “We will further increase the depth and breadth of our capital markets. We will move forward with our privatization program, and we will continue to stimulate the growth of private business,” he said. “These are ambitious but achievable goals, and ones that are creating many exciting opportunities for investment and for partnering with us to build a modern, diversified and resilient Saudi economy.”