- CONFERENCE SEES EXPERT DISCUSSIONS OF INVESTMENT
OPPORTUNITIES –
- EVENT BOOSTS SAGIA AIM TO ATTRACT BUSINESSES TO HELP
TRANSFORM SAUDI ECONOMY -
Riyadh,
22nd May 2014 Rajab 1435 A.H.: SAGIA and
Euromoney yesterday hosted an event for investors in London aiming at
attracting international investment into the Kingdom’s economy by
leading international businesses.
The first Saudi-UK
Investment Forum, held at the Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square,
London, is part of SAGIA’s efforts to attract businesses that will
help to boost productivity, create high quality jobs and ensure
greater prosperity for the nation through creating a strong,
diversified economy.
London is home to many
leading international businesses and the United Kingdom has
particular strengths in areas such as transport, healthcare and ICT
where rapid investment is planned in Saudi Arabia as the economy
expands and transforms.
SAGIA’s conference
builds on existing strong ties between Saudi Arabia and the UK. Saudi
represents the UK's largest market in the Middle East and among the
top 20 UK export markets globally, with £7.5bn in exports of goods
and services in 2012, and overall bilateral trade worth an estimated
£15bn per year. The UK has excellent potential to play a role in
bringing international expertise to Saudi as the Kingdom makes
extensive investments in order to transform the economy.
The conference began
with welcoming remarks from HRH Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdul
Aziz Al-Saud, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United
Kingdom and Northern Ireland. HRH Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf spoke of
the close historic ties between the two countries and the need for
understanding and respect, saying that “this might mean taking tea
and cucumber sandwiches in London for me, and recently it meant
donning Saudi robes and wielding a sword for the Prince of Wales in a
traditional Ardah in Riyadh.” He also said that it was his wish
“that this forum will encourage you to come to Saudi Arabia to join
us at this exciting time of growth and opportunity”. His Royal
Highness also thanked SAGIA for its role in the conference.
Following this, H.E.
Eng. Abdullatif A. Al-Othman, Governor, SAGIA, spoke about his own
experiences in London following his first visit in 1979 and outlined
the opportunities for investors within Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom
continues its “unprecedented transformation from a simple economy
to a G20 country”. He noted in particular the opportunities in
healthcare, IT, transport, logistics, building materials, engineering
and construction and the strong legal environment and attractive
investment climate from which firms can benefit.
Euromoney Chairman,
Richard Ensor, then interviewed leading British investors about their
experiences of the Kingdom – Robert Gray of HSBC said ‘to be
successful you need to be local and international and the quality of
the staff in the Kingdom enables that’. Patrick Van Daele of
Shell, a long-term investor in the Kingdom also stressed the
importance of supporting the Saudi SME sector through innovative
partnerships.
Dr John Sfakianakis of
MASIC outlined the stability of the political and fiscal position of
the Kingdom and how that underpins the nearly $400bn investment
programme currently underway.
TRANSPORT AND
LOGISTICS
The first of four
panels began with a short overview of the rail, metro, and other
projects in the KSA, followed by a panel discussion on the
opportunity and challenges of investing in this sector. The transport
sector in Saudi Arabia is seeing extensive development and British
businesses have the potential to bring considerable international
expertise to the development of this sector for the long term.
The introductory
session saw interviews with the following figures from the rail
sector in Saudi Arabia:
- Wasmi Al-Farraj, Director General, Expansion Projects, Saudi Railway Organisation
- Rumaih Al-Rumaih, Chief Executive Officer, Saudi Railway Company
- Fahad Al-Shaikh, Director of Operations and Maintenance, King Abdulaziz Public Transport Project, Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA)
While the sector panel
debate saw a number of British businesses sharing their experience of
working in Saudi Arabia:
- Nigel Ash, Managing Director, Network Rail Consulting
- Ivor Catto, Chief Executive, Hyder Consulting
- Alistair Dormer, Global Chief Executive Officer, Hitachi Rail Systems Business
- Piers Marlow, Business Development Director, Arriva
- Dom McKenna, Group International Director, Freightliner Cross-Border
Participants in the
session stressed their commitment to utilising Saudi employees and to
transferring bringing their knowledge in order to leave a lasting
legacy from their investment. The discussions covered the Saudi
Arabian Rail Development Programme, the Riyadh Metro Programme (HCDR)
as well as the potential role of UK companies within this
development.
Alistair Dormer,
Hitachi Rail Systems Business, stressed the long-term focus of its
approach and the need to train a talented workforce whilst
highlighting that Saudi was an ‘important area of growth’ for the
company. Piers Marlow, Arriva, described Saudi Arabia as the next big
thing for the company and how localisation should drive the creation
of an autonomous business. Likewise, Rumaih Al-Rumaih, Saudi Railway
Company, stressed the importance of the Saudi Railway Polytechic in
training the next generation and outlined the opportunities across
all areas of the industry, from infrastructure to operations while
Nigel Ash of Network Rail Consulting outlined how both training and
practical experience could be provided to Saudis through partnership
with UK companies already operating in the industry.
INVESTMENT IN
INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
The second panel
session looked at the development of technology clusters in the
United Kingdom and what Saudi Arabia could learn as its own SMEs
begin to develop in the technology sector.
The speakers on the
panel session, covering expertise from both the United Kingdom’s
most successful SME clusters and from Saudi Arabia, were:
- Ahmed Al-Oraini, Director, Saudi Technology Development and Investment Company (Taqnia)
- Pru Ashby, Head of Technology, London and Partners
- Tony Raven, Chief Executive, Cambridge Enterprise
- Amin Al-Shibani, Vice President, Economic Development, KAUST
The session explained
to potential investors the aims of Saudi’s investment and the
programmes in place to achieve this and looked at how the UK’s
experience in areas such as Tech City and its expertise in ICT could
help the Kingdom in its development.
HEALTHCARE
The third panel session
looked at the extensive opportunities within the healthcare sector in
Kingdom as large amounts of investment look to transform the
Kingdom’s medical care and at how companies from the United Kingdom
could be part of helping that development to succeed.
The speakers on the
panel session were:
- Mohammed Alyemeni, Deputy Minister for Planning and Health Economics, Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- Tal Hisham Nazer, Chief Executive Officer, BUPA Arabia
- Keith Vander Kolk, Chief Executive Officer, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare
- Chris Winter, Chairman, Health Enterprise East (NHS)
The key message was
that Saudi Arabia is embarking on major expansion in healthcare and
that the country is open to proposals for investment in the every
field, from hospital equipment to pharmaceuticals, and is more than
ready for innovation and change.
Speaking from the
perspective of the Government, Mohammed Alyemeni, Deputy Minister for
Planning and Health Economics at the Ministry of Health, said that
plans to expand the state sector, in particular building some 140 new
hospitals, would amount effectively to doubling the size and
operations of the Ministry of Heath, which currently run 60 per cent
of the country’s healthcare services. The remaining 40 per cent is
split between private and other state enterprises.
Tal Hisham Nazer, chief
executive of BUPA Arabia, raised the possibility that the Saudi
Arabia might in time extend obligatory health insurance to the entire
population. Currently insurance is only obligatory for foreign
workers. Likewise, Keith Vander Kolk, chief executive of Johns
Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, talked about the challenges and
opportunities in running a private healthcare enterprise in Saudi
Arabia, which he does on behalf of Aramco’s 350,000 employees and
pensioners.
Looking at shifts in
the emphasis of care, both Mr Vander Kolk and Chris Winter, chairman
of a UK National Health Enterprise Board, spoke of a goal to
transform the healthcare sector from a sickness service to a
preventative service, arguing that it is more profitable to prevent
illness than treat it.
MAKING OFFSET
WORK
The final session
looked at the structural set-up of the Saudi British Economic Offset
Progamme, what it means, its role in the Kingdom’s private sector
and industrial projects, the complications and challenges of this
initiative and making better use of offset between the two countries.
The speakers on the
session were:
- Abdulhamid Alghuneim, Assistant Secretary, Economic Offset Committee
- Sir Charles Masefield, Head of Working Group on Offset, Saudi British Joint Business Council
- Grant Rogan, Chief Executive Officer, Blenheim Capital Services
The session looked at
the successes of the offset programme so far and how it could be
adapted and streamlined to improve its effectiveness in Saudi Arabia
and to meet the country’s changing economic requirements.
Speaking from the Saudi
perspective, Abdulhamid AlGhunaim outlined the development of offset
noting that it has been successful but is on the edge of a major
change. From a UK viewpoint, Grant Rogan commented that in the future
the offset programme would see openings in indirect and civil offset
and this provided good opportunities for UK SMEs.
Sir Charles Masfield
announced that within months the SBJBC Offset team would have a list
of priority sectors and criteria for qualification for the programme.
He said SBJBC would play a very active role in promoting these to UK
companies and the panel concluded on a very positive note that
important developments to upgrade the profile of the offset programme
would be seen before the year’s end.
Co-organiser Euromoney
Conferences’ regional head Richard Banks summarised the day at the
close of the conference. ‘The success of this event is a product of
the shared vision of both governments and, even more importantly, the
long-term commercial relationships between the British and the Saudi
private sectors’ Banks said. He added ‘We’re already planning a
bigger event for 2015’.
