RIYADH: Twenty-one Saudi companies are taking part in Anuga 2021, the leading global trade fair for the food and beverage industry, being held in Cologne, Germany.
The companies are participating in the exhibition under the umbrella of the “Made in Saudi” program. The trade fair will continue until Oct. 13.
“Made in Saudi” aims to play a key role in achieving the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform plan by supporting Saudi products and directing purchasing power toward local products and services, leading to the private sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product to 65 percent and raising the proportion of non-oil exports in the total non-oil GDP to about 50 percent by 2030.
The secretary-general of the Saudi Exports Development Authority, also known as Saudi Exports, Faisal bin Saad Al-Baddah, said the Saudi food exports increased by 9 percent amounting to SR7.4 billion ($1.97 billion) in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.
It aims to help local businesses grow by encouraging local consumers to buy more locally made products and helping businesses to increase their exports to priority markets.
The program seeks to create more than 1.3 million job opportunities in the industrial and mining sector.
Saudi Exports is also taking measures to promote Saudi companies to take part in international projects by identifying over 120 international tendering opportunities in a number of target countries, mainly covering construction and industrial supplies and infrastructure projects.
Saudi Exports also launched an international tendering service to open new opportunities for national companies to expand in international markets and increase their competitiveness, by allowing them to export services and products via international tenders in several targeted sectors.
The service includes eight targeted sectors and 24 sub-branches, where Saudi Exports will provide periodic reports with data and analyses for the most important projects in targeted countries.
In other efforts to increase non-oil exports, the Saudi Export-Import Bank recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federation of Saudi Chambers to provide non-oil exporters SR9 billion.
The MoU signed with EXIM seeks to support efforts in increasing non-oil exports and provide credit solutions to the business community to improve the competitiveness of Saudi products.
