Saudi privatization program now seeing investments topping $50bn, finance minister reveals

Saudi privatization program now seeing investments topping $50bn, finance minister reveals

RIYADH: The pace of Saudi Arabia’s privatization program is accelerating with investments now exceeding $50 billion, the Minister of Finance and Chairman of the National Center for Privatization Projects Muhammad Al-Jadaan has revealed.

During his participation in the roundtable discussions with consortia of South Korean firms in Seoul, Al-Jadaan pointed out that the investments are being seen in 200 projects across 17 sectors.

The program’s pipeline also includes another 300 projects currently under evaluation.

Even though the government started the journey of privatization and partnership between the public and private sectors recently, it has achieved significant goals during the short period of time, the minister noted.

This comes as the Kingdom’s privatization program – which is the largest and widest in the Middle East – has completed the privatization of 30 projects during the past five years, he said.

Al-Jadaan went on to demonstrate the depth of the relationship between Korean investors and the system of privatization and partnership projects between the public and private sectors in Saudi Arabia.

"The Kingdom has adopted a modern framework for privatization and partnership projects between the public and private sectors that is flexible and based on international best practices," the finance minister explained.

The current projects across different sectors in