Saudi Arabia offers investment opportunities to Russian companies

RIYADH: As part of Saudi Vision 2030’s aim to diversify economic sources, the Kingdom has offered Russian companies the opportunity to set up “strategic partnerships in the industrial sector.”
The state-owned Saudi Industrial Property Authority (MODON), which has set up 35 world-class industrial cities across the Kingdom, revealed the plans for Russian collaboration here on Tuesday.
A statement from MODON, following a meeting with various Russian businessmen at its offices, said that Russian Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Vasily Osmakov had met with the National Industrial Clusters Development Program and MODON to discuss “the need for continued and increased coordination and cooperation between the Kingdom and Russia in all industrial sectors, especially mining.”
The statement said that Osmakov took the chance to highlight the role that Russian expertise could play in “the creation of integrated and transformational value-added industries that are globally competitive.”
MODON said the Russian minister and his accompanying delegation were briefed on investment opportunities in MODON’s industrial cities, as well as the various benefits that MODON provides to industrialists, such as incubators and ready-built factories, as well as economic advantages and attractive incentives.
The statement said that the authority’s plans to collaborate with Russian companies comes as “a continuation of the trade and investment talks between the Kingdom and Russia, which began in the Russian capital Moscow, during the visit of King Salman to Moscow last October.”
In another statement released to Arab News, Khalid Al-Salem, director general of MODON, explained that the authority has streamlined the period for issuing building permits in industrial cities from three days down to one day, which he claimed would encourage more investors and entrepreneurs to locate their businesses there.
Al-Salem said that MODON’s e-portal has made the process simple, fast, and cost-effective, as well as transparent. The e-portal can be used by investors for land allocation in industrial cities, renewal and transfer of contracts, approval of drawings and more.
Investment in MODON’s 35 industrial cities across the Kingdom had exceeded SR500 billion at the end of last year. There are more than 3,000 factories and over 6,000 industrial, service and logistics entities operating in the cities, with over 528,000 people employed.