Saudi-Chinese trade exchange tops SAR 400 bln: Official

Saad Alshahrani, Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs and Investment Studies at the Ministry of Investment

The trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and China exceeded SAR 400 billion at the end of 2022, an increase of more than 30%, Saad Alshahrani, Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs and Investment Studies at the Ministry of Investment, told Argaam on the sidelines of 10th session of the Arab-China Business Conference.
 

He indicated that there is an opportunity to strengthen such partnerships.
 

The trade exchange between Arab countries and China grew by more than 25% in 2022, Alshahrani noted.
 

The mutual interest between the two parties grew significantly over the past two years; hence their trade exchange rose almost 30% during this period, he said, noting that the trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and China improved further over the last period.

The conference aims to help the Arab world build distinguished economic, investment and trade partnerships with China, Alshahrani said.
 

He added that the relationship between Arabs and the Chinese dates back more than 2,000 years. It started with trade as well as exchange of cultures and civilizations that increased further over the past years.
 

The Saudi Vision 2030 contributed to strengthening new sectors, such as tourism entertainment, communications and information technology (CIT), healthcare, biotechnology, supply chains, logistics services, etc.
 

He added that the National Investment Strategy (NIS) included several pillars and supporting initiatives to speed up and raise investment size in the Kingdom, including finance, and incentives for investors to make projects more attractive. The strategy also aimed to create promising investment opportunities on the levels of sectors and regions, develop legislations, and ease doing business to achieve economic diversification.
 

The Kingdom aims that investment will account for over 30% of GDP by focusing on various sectors such as tourism, healthcare, construction, real estate development, CIT, sports, and renewable energy. This will be attained through offering incentives to these sectors to build a fast-growing and competitive economy.
 

The ministry, in cooperation with other government bodies, is conducting internal studies to set investment priorities and deliver investment-driven GDP.
 

The Kingdom has the fastest growing economy in the G20. It ranked 16th among G20 members, Al-Shahrani said, noting that China is the world’s second largest economy. Accordingly, there are joint aspects of interest between the two countries.