Abu Dhabi: The US sees investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia as the country opens its economy as part of National Transformation Programme (NTP), an official from the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia told Gulf News.
“Some new sectors and sub sectors are emerging as part of the programme. The US government is trying to identify new technologies and solutions that can be introduced in Saudi Arabia from the private sector side in health care, power generation among others,” said Douglas J Wallace, commercial counsellor in the US embassy in Riyadh on the sidelines of AmCham Abu Dhabi round-table summit on Wednesday.
“The demand for electricity increases by about 9 per cent per year in Saudi. Every year Saudi Arabia has got to bring on 4 to 5 gigawatts of new electricity to keep up with the demand. One of the areas in NTP was to make electricity and distribution more efficient.”
NTP is an ambitious initiative launched by Saudi government in June this year to create more jobs and boost foreign direct investment in the country from the present figure of 30 billion riyals to 70 billion riyals in the coming years.
The US exports to Saudi Arabia reached an all-time high of $19 billion last year with automotive, aerospace and health care sectors dominating the exports.
The US investment figure in Saudi Arabia approached $11 billion last year mainly in petrochemicals, oil and gas and aluminium smelting.
“We are having a dialogue with the Saudi government to support them in the execution of the National Transformation programme.”
“If NTP continues to develop and rolled out in a successful way, US investments will increase.”
