RIYADH: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recorded a 5.6% rise in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during the first quarter of 2024, reaching a SR9.5 billion ($2.53 billion), which stood at SR9 billion the previous year. This growth reflects the potential of the Kingdom as a destination for international investors and supports Vision 2030 goals to improve the investment environment.
The inflow of FDI reached SR 17 billion, a 0.6% percent increase from the previous year. SR 16.9 billion in the first quarter of year 2023, thus showing that foreign investors have not been deterred. On the other hand, FDI outflows have a decline of 5.1 percent. SR 7.5 billion, this indicates that there is a retention of foreign capital within Saudi Arabia.
The National Investment Strategy (NIS) announced in 2021 targets increasing annual FDI inflows to more than $103 billion and domestic investment to over $453 billion by 2030. According to the recent UN data, Saudi Arabia is seen as an important FDI receiver in West Asia and attracted $65.1 billion after the pandemic up to 2023.
There was a 55% increase in international project finance to $22 billion in 2023 for greenfield projects that reached $29 billion marking a 108% annual growth. These figures show the Kingdom’s continuous efforts to develop a thriving environment for investments.
