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Although Saudi Arabia is currently ahead of its annual benchmarks for foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, it still has a long way to go, Investment Minister Khalid Al Falih told Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative forum (watch, runtime: 0:38). “Today — if you normalize for fluctuations — we’re about 4x where we were [on FDI targets for 2030] before the Vision [2030] started,” Al Falih said. The Kingdom is looking to hit an ambitious target of USD 100 bn in annual FDI inflows by 2030. Al Falih expressed cautious optimism, noting that “all leading indicators are pointing upwards, all lights flashing green.”
REMEMBER- FDI net inflows declined 14.7% y-o-y to SAR 85.5 bn in 2023, down from SAR 100.2 bn in the previous year.
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Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman received high praise at the FII, with Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio calling him a “great leader” on par with Deng Xiaoping and Lee Kuan Yew — both of whom spearheaded transformative economic reforms in China and Singapore, Bloomberg reports.
MEANWHILE- The large purse at the Six Kings Slam in Riyadh played a part in attracting stars to the championship, but wasn’t the only motivator: Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz — who bagged USD 1.5 mn over his four days at the tournament — said the Kingdom giving out the highest rewards in tennis history prodded him to compete here, Reuters reports.
What was said: “I love playing tennis. You know, most of the time I don’t think about the money. I just play for love or for fun. But you have to be realistic. You have to think that you want to earn money, you know, and that’s it,” he explained. Others have said they joined the tournament for the sporting challenge it presented, with Jannik Sinner refuting claims that he only joined for the money, writes the newswire.
