Energy, water, pharmaceutical sectors key for local content: Alkhorayef

Bandar Alkhorayef Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources

Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef said that there are sectors that are key in terms of supporting local content, notably the energy sector.

In statements to Argaam, Alkhorayef indicated that the Ministry of Energy is exerting tremendous effort in cooperation with major companies such as Aramco, SABIC and the Saudi Electricity Co. to boost local content, adding that it provides huge localization opportunities.

“Within the scope of the energy sector, there is renewable energy that will provide a huge amount of projects, based on the Kingdom's plan raise the percentage of renewable energy to 50% of the energy mix,” he added.

The Minister also confirmed that the water and desalination sector is huge, adding that the Kingdom is one of the largest countries in terms of desalination plants, which consume very large quantities of products. “We successfully worked with the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Water and the Saline Water Conversion Corporation to create huge opportunities and localize many products,” said the Minister.

“In the pharmaceutical industry, we are also working with the Ministry of Health and several companies via the Drug Localization Committee to attract many foreign pharmaceutical companies to build up capabilities within the Kingdom. We recently announced the localization of insulin and we are proceeding with the localization of these sectors,” he added.