As for encouraging foreign investment in our country, we see the constant and untiring efforts by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) to convince foreigners of the investment opportunities available in the Kingdom. I pity the SAGIA officials who, on a daily basis, beg Westerners to do us a favor by investing some of their money here.
Do we really believe that when the money comes from a khawaja — a foreigner — it is somehow different from our own?
Conferences are regularly held in London and seminars in Chicago but never in Jeddah, Riyadh or Dammam. If the topic of discussion is chips, we have to settle for potato chips and not computer chips because those chips are the domain of Westerners. Who are we to dare demand such things when we know nothing about computers and computer industries? Don’t we know that those matters are the exclusive province of Western geniuses?
If we are speaking of natural gas, then our participation is limited to filling our kitchen gas cylinders since exploiting natural gas for industry and for export is the domain of Westerners. Again, who are we to understand and question these complicated matters?
When someone who, for all we know, is neither an expert nor well-informed comes to give us a speech, we listen closely and respectfully. But when a Saudi expert speaks, nobody listens or takes him seriously.
Saudi businessmen have been successful in various businesses both inside the Kingdom and abroad. The companies they run are successfully drilling for oil in Yemen, Azerbaijan and Sweden. Why, then, do we expect Saudis to fail in their own country? Saudis own many computer and programming companies as well as restaurants and other successful businesses in the United States. To this is now added the Al-Tajaz chain of restaurants with branches around the world.
It is said that Saudi money invested abroad amounts to $700 billion and that in the electricity sector alone, the Kingdom will need investments of some $200 billion over the next 20 years. The gas project will require $25 billion in its initial stage with the figure rising to $250 billion when the project is completed. In short, this means we do have enough money to finance these projects. But do we have the faith and trust in ourselves to do it or does the khawaja have to put his stamp on everything?
Arab News Local Press 18 November 2002
