KSA wants to join ranks of world's top 10 nations

King Abdullah Economic City is spearheading a resurgence in Saudi Arabia's growth.

The Saudi Arabian Investment Authority (SAGIA) has launched a mission to catapult the Kingdom into the top ten most competitive nations by 2010.

The programme, dubbed 10x10 - top ten, by 2010 - was unveiled by SAGIA Governor Amr Al-Dabbagh during a media tour of King Abdullah Economic City.

"Our mission is to position Saudi Arabia among the top 10 most competitive nations by 2010 through the creation of pro-business environment, knowledge-based society and by developing economic cities," explained Al-Dabbagh.

"Our vision is to attract international investors to achieve rapid and sustainable economic growth in Saudi Arabia, capitalising on the Kingdom's main strengths as the global capital of energy and as major hub between East and West," he continued.

Saudi Arabia has demonstrated a dramatically different attitude to inward investment in the past year. A $20 billion petrochemical facility was announced last month as a joint venture between Aramco and American giant Dow Chemical.

Railways are being built as a result of joint ventures with companies in the Far East and Europe.

A major aluminium plant is being built using investment and expertise from Alcan in Canada.

This investment is vital, according to SAGIA, and must be accelerated. "Investment is the oxygen of economy. Without investment there is no growth, there is no job creation. We need to inject sufficient amount of investments into the economy to increase economic growth and only then we can create jobs and deal with the problem of rising unemployment," declared Al-Dabbagh.

King Abdullah Economic City is one of seven new economic development areas being built in Saudi Arabia at the moment. The city hopes to act as a role model to other areas of the Kingdom through its ability to stimulate growth in industrial, manufacturing and service businesses.
"The King Abdullah Economic City is expected to usher in a new era of economic prosperity in the Kingdom and has the potential to create one million job opportunities," said the city's Chief Executive Officer Nidal Jamjoom.

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