RIYADH: SABIC’s national initiative, Nusaned, qualified 40 entrepreneurs to invest in the Saudi market and announced a series of projects that will contribute SR 6.1 billion ($1.6 billion) to gross domestic product (GDP) and create 3,149 jobs.
The announcements were made during the Nusaned executive council’s sixth meeting in Riyadh on Dec. 24, during which several agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoU) with local and international companies were signed.
The agreements with chambers of commerce and industry of various regions in the Kingdom are aimed at increasing the localization of jobs and raising the percentage of women’s participation in the labor market. Other agreements with international companies are meant to attract investment in the fields of innovation, electricity, engineering consulting, renewable energy and localization of technologies in the industrial field.
A new patent registered by the Global Company for Downstream Industries (GDI), a leading Saudi company, was also announced during the meeting. The GDI, in cooperation with the German company Evonik, developed a new technology for multi-purpose isopropyl alcohol production, which will drive sustainability in local markets by achieving self-sufficiency and increasing the Kingdom’s exports.
Moreover, 85 female graduates with bachelor’s degrees in chemistry were honored after they completed an intensive training program launched in cooperation with the High Institute for Elastomer Industries. The program aims to enhance skills, deepen understanding of the elastomer industries, and qualify participants to join the industrial sector.
The council signed several MoUs under the “ExSABIC” program, which creates jobs for Saudi youth by providing training at SABIC sites and affiliates in the Kingdom. The program seeks to qualify national talents to support local companies that contribute to increasing local content to achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.
Nusaned’s council was established at the beginning of 2018 to follow up and implement the objectives of Nusaned to develop local content. The council convenes three meetings annually. Its membership includes the ministries of energy and labor and social development, the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority, the General Investment Authority, and the Local Content and Governmental Procurement Authority.
