Saudi Arabia offers plenty of opportunities for foreign investors: SAGIA

Saudi Arabia’s decision to open up key economic sectors will offer a wide range of opportunities for international investors, especially in healthcare and education, Oxford Business Group reported, citing Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) governor Ibrahim Al-Omar.

“Healthcare, education, retail, military industries and real estate brokerage are just some of the sectors that we have recently opened to 100 percent foreign ownership. We want them [investors] to help us meet growing demand through public-private partnerships,” he said in an interview.

The healthcare sector is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5.5 percent, while forecasts indicate that the number of students in the Kingdom will rise from 7.4 million to 10.5 million by 2030, Al-Omar added. 

In an interview with Argaam, Amanat Holdings CEO Tristan de Boysson said the company aims to invest AED 1 billion ($272 million) to fortify its presence in the education and healthcare sectors across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.

Meanwhile, SAGIA said in a recent report that the number of new international companies reached 267 in the first quarter of 2019, up 70 percent on the same period last year. Of these firms, 70 percent were 100 percent owned by foreign entities.

Al-Omar said these and other results confirmed that the market was responding well to national efforts to enhance Saudi Arabia’s business environment, indicating a continuing positive trend in investor activity. 

“Today, Saudi Arabia is a strategically located G20 economy with favorable fundamentals, an increasingly attractive business environment and access to a host of greenfield markets and innovative projects that are hard to rival globally,” he added.