RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure sector is presenting huge investment opportunities for private sector players, with the National Development Fund playing a key role in mobilizing financing, a senior official said.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the PIF Private Sector Forum on Feb. 10, Stephen Groff, governor of the National Development Fund, said foreign investors entering the Kingdom can expect strong returns in the coming years.
Groff’s remarks align with Saudi Arabia’s broader push to attract long-term foreign capital under its Vision 2030 strategy, which aims to diversify the economy beyond oil revenues. As part of this economic transformation program, the Kingdom is targeting $100 billion in annual foreign direct investment by 2030.
“We established the infrastructure fund very much with an eye toward helping and structure projects to make them more attractive to the private sector. The benefit of having the private sector involved in these infrastructure projects is that it increases the speed at which those can be undertaken and completed. It tends to typically reduce the cost and increase the quality,” said Groff.
He added: “We really think that there is a huge opportunity for private sectors to invest in the infrastructure sector in the Kingdom.”
The NDF official added that foreign investors can also tap into substantial opportunities across a range of sectors, including industry, financial services, renewable energy, mining, and tourism.
Commenting on the fund’s operations, Groff said the National Development Fund operates as an ecosystem of 12 sector-focused funds and banks, providing development-oriented financing aimed at supporting growth across various segments of the Saudi economy.
“We can help Saudi Arabia make attractive to private investors. Through two of our funds; the infrastructure fund and the industrial development fund, we are anchoring investments in the Neom Green Hydrogen Project,” said Groff.
He added that through its infrastructure fund, the NDF is supporting a number of investments linked to ongoing development activity in and around Neom, as well as several other giga-projects.
“When we started, we were focusing on three or four segments of the economy. And since then, we expanded to cover almost all imaginable sectors of the economy. We can come in with our tools and can support virtually any sector,” added Groff.
The official also talked about the partnership between the Public Investment Fund and NDF, calling it a wholesale-retail relationship.
“It is like a wholesale and retail kind of division. PIF comes at a very massive scale and can help alter a sector or segment of the economy and create demand. NDF can come in at a more retail level, and support entrepreneurs, SMEs, businesses, entrepreneurs in that large ecosystem,” added Groff.
According to Groff, opportunities will continue to grow in Saudi Arabia, and the reprioritization of some projects in the Kingdom is “just a natural evolution to any kind of transformation journey.”
“The opportunities for private investors and foreign direct investment will continue to grow. They will be getting very positive and incredible returns over the course of the next 10,15,20,50 years,” he added.
