Saudi market ‘more attractive’ for investment now: RDIF chief

The Saudi market is “more attractive” for investment now than three or four years ago, and many Russian companies are looking to enter the Kingdom, said Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).

“There are many Russian companies in petrochemicals and many others that do want to invest in Saudi. We believe that jointly with our parents we can bring billions and tens of billions of investment in Saudi,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) 2018 conference in Riyadh.

Commenting on the Jamal Khashoggi case, Dmitriev said it was too early to say whether the fallout from the incident in Turkey would lead to foreign investments being halted in Saudi Arabia.

“We believe it’s too early to talk about any shortfall of investments. We see lots of US, European partners here and Saudi Arabia is definitely making major economic transformation. There is no doubt that the Saudi market is more attractive for investment now that it was 3-4 years ago,” he said.

The tragedy in Istanbul is being “thoroughly investigated” by the Saudi authorities, Dmitriev said, adding that he expects everyone guilty to be punished.

A source inside the RDIF told Argaam that the Russian delegation already planned to have a “strong presence” at the FII 2018 even before the latest events in Turkey. “We are very keen on our partnership with Saudi Arabia,” the source said.