Here are the top 3 investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia: ministry

Riyadh City

Saudi Arabia’s economy showed clear signs of resilience despite the challenges faced by the global economy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first nine months of 2020, the Ministry of Investment said in the recent “Invest Saudi” Fall 2020 report.

The number of new foreign investment projects licensed in the Kingdom in Q3 2020 saw a swift rebound from the previous quarter. The ministry issued 306 licenses, 21% year-on-year and a 96% quarter-on-quarter increase in Q3 2020.

The ministry highlighted the top three investment opportunities in the report among several hundred available.

1) Al Khomrah logistics zone

Al Khomra is a modern logistics zone offers commercial facilities, customs bonded zone and re-exports area. The total investment requirement is $5.3 billion. Strategically located near the Red Sea, the project is one of the major trade platforms between Europe, Africa, and Asia. The zone will also help in reducing shipping costs, improving productivity, increasing reliability, and punctuality of shipping. Al Khomra covers 2,378,085 square metres in land area in its first phase with a gross flat area of 1.38 million square meters.

2) Brass and copper plant

Mining is set to become the third biggest pillar of the Saudi industrial base due to Saudi Arabia’s rich deposits of minerals. The opportunity entails setting up a brass and copper plant facility, with investments of $120 million, with a 45 kiloton in production capacity in the country. The plant will produce copper and brass products for non-electrical usage in the region and has an expected payback period of 9.1 years. The project is eligible for up to 75% of project financing by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF). Additionally, the Human Resources Development Fund provides 30%, 20% and 10% of Saudi nationals’ salaries for their 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of work, respectively.

3) Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane function

The reverse osmosis membrane demand in the GCC is forecasted to grow by about 13% per year up to the year 2025. This project, which requires an investment of $40-45 million, entails the establishment of RO membrane manufacturing facilities to cater to both the local and regional demand. All materials are available within the Kingdom, except for Chlorophenyl

Sulfone and Polysulfone. There are also opportunities to invest across key components and equipment (such as module making, spiral element test benches, water filers, chemical dosing, circulation, high-pressure pumps, etc.). The investor will have access to up to 75% of project financing through a soft loan by the SIDF.