Saudi Arabia's HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs of Saudi Arabia, has inaugurated a programme that aims to unleash up to SR5 trillion of private sector investment by 2030. 

 

Establishing a vibrant and thriving private sector is one of the kingdom's national priorities, and is the driving force behind the creation of the large corporate investment programme called “Shareek”. 

 

The programme aims at developing a stronger partnership between the government and the private sector and accelerating the achievement of strategic objectives to increase the resilience of the nation’s economy and support sustainable growth and prosperity, said a Saudi Press Agency report.

 

The programme is designed to provide support via various pillars including financial, monetary, operational and regulatory cooperation and asset investment.

 

"Shareek" Program, which is headquartered in Riyadh under the management of the General Secretariat of the programme, aims to enhance the development and resilience of the Saudi economy by increasing the gross domestic product, providing job opportunities and diversifying the economy, in addition to launching private sector as well as the accumulated investments across all economic aspects with a target of SR5 trillion by 2030, and add up to SR2 trillion to the GDP by 2025 and provide hundreds of thousands of new job opportunities. 

 

The programme will also help, as a strategic enabler, to accelerate investment plans for major companies.

 

Saudi Arabia’s government will manage "Shareek" under the directives of HRH the Crown Prince, while the large companies investment board will be tasked with overseeing the implementation of the programme, which includes in its membership the Ministers of Investment, Tourism, Finance, Communications, Information Technology, Human Resources and Social Development, the Governor of the Public Investment Fund, the Secretary of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs and Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning.

 

The programme’s name embodies the promotion of the spirit of partnership between the public and private sectors, as the philosophy guiding the new program, which was established to achieve enormous benefits for large private companies in the kingdom.

 

The programme was established to accelerate the growth of business opportunities within the Kingdom and support the achievement of Vision 2030. It is not a direct response to the negative economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, but rather it achieves a number of goals, most notably to support the sustainable growth of the kingdom's economy, the report said.

 

The launch of the programme is also another step for the Kingdom paving the way towards a resilient and diversified national economy.

 

The programme will become an essential part of the national investment strategy and the broader economic development plan, and it will enhance the kingdom's reputation as a business-friendly environment that attracts investments seeking remunerative returns, in addition to providing practical and accurate support to accelerate the growth of large companies' projects in the kingdom, given the framework of the large companies investment board and clear guidelines for large companies that qualify them for support, and enable them to participate in the plan voluntarily which is designed to achieve major benefits for these companies.

 

Each company will receive special support and benefit from government support that is most closely linked to it, which will accelerate its investment plans and programmes. The broad-based support will cover many areas that may include regulatory, financial, operational affairs, asset investment, and cooperation based on the specific needs of each major company with a view to achieving its long-term investment ambitions.

 

To benefit from the programme, large companies must prove their ability to invest a minimum of SR20 billion over the next decade, and the ability to invest SR400 million in each additional project, to possess the necessary qualifications to obtain the programme's support.

 

The Public Investment Fund constitutes a leading party from the newly created General Secretariat to assist in managing the program, and the Fund Governor, Yasser Al-Rumayyan, holds the position of Chairman of the Executive Committee for Large Corporate Investments.

 

The program is expected to enable large companies to increase their investment targets by more than 50% of their current plans. There are no specific investment targets for the programme due to the specific nature and requirements of each large company. However, the program was established to ensure that ambitious investment strategies are leveraged and achieved much faster than before.