Saudi municipal sector ready for privatization, says minister

Saudi Arabia has completed studies to privatize its municipal sector, and many municipal projects will be privatized in the future, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs Abdullatif bin Abdulmalik Al Sheikh told CNBC Arabia.

Some municipal projects are ready for privatization such as parking lots across the Kingdom with a total 500,000 parking spaces, he said, adding that the monitoring of municipal and market services could also be privatized.

"In the coming years, we hope that the municipal sector would gradually become a policy-maker and an organized sector that monitors performance and quality, while the private sector would handle the execution part, aiming to improve the quality of services and enhance the partnership level," he said.