UAE becomes top investor in Saudi Arabia

Abu Dhabi: With the signing of the 100-billion riyal deal with Emaar for the King Abdullah City in Jeddah, the UAE overtook Japan to become the top foreign investor in Saudi Arabia, according to statistics released by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia).

UAE investments approved by Sagia till May stood at 122.9 billion riyals, accounting for nearly 41 per cent of the total FDI pumped into the kingdom, the figures showed.

The Emaar agreement encouraged several other projects from the UAE, which boosted the country's dominance in Saudi Arabia's FDI arena.

Ten major countries investing in Saudi Arabia include the UAE, Japan, British Virgin Islands, Bahrain, France, Germany, Lebanon, Cayman Island, Canada and Bermuda.

Sagia, which was founded as part of Saudi Arabia's economic diversification programme, has licensed 3,608 projects valued at 292.657 billion riyals.

A breakdown of the data showed that the services sector has received the lion's share of FDI in Saudi Arabia at around 150 billion riyals. It is followed by the industrial sector, which received 141.3 billion riyals.

The rest of the FDI was for agriculture and other sectors.