SAGIA participates in KBI workshop

Participating in the workshop were a number of officials from government agencies including the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Commerce and Trade as well as a number of businessmen and researchers.
The workshop was held to study the strategies of investing in the sector between all involved parties and the necessities to promote local and foreign investments to the sector.

The strategy aims to place the Kingdom in the driver's seat of these industries on the Middle Eastern front by:


• Investing in the improvement of the industries and related firms

• Attracting local and foreign as well as joint ventures to the field

Dr. Salim Al-Malik, Head of the health sector at SAGIA pointed out that the workshop's goal was to determine the most important techniques to be used in the promotion of this vital sector and sub-sectors. These include IT, Education, Health and Life Science. Al-Malik explained that an international consulting firm had completed a comprehensive study of the sector and related investment potential in the Kingdom utilizing similar international experiences in countries like Ireland, North Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.

The workshop identified more than 60 KBI opportunities and specified the 10 most important ones. The chosen 10 KBI opportunities are:

1. JV's in the Communications and IT sector.
2. Investments in the Health Services sector.
3. Investments in Public Services (Banking, Consulting, Insurance, Real Estate, Accounting and Engineering).
4. Pharmaceutical production.
5. Mega water desalination projects (to be increased from 27 stations to 40 stations).
6. Vocational training to increase the available KBI-related human capital.
7. Expanding the usage of the Internet.
8. Added-value plastic production.
9. Water services investments.
10. Research programs into diagnostic and treatment problems with the Arab world.

The workshop discussed the hurdles that stand before the growth of this sector and ways to overcome them through workshops involving concerned parties.

SAGIA will work closely with all involved parties to implement the recommendations of the workshop in a fast and effective manner and to promote the investment opportunities in the sector locally and internationally, Added Dr. Al-Malik.

SAGIA had signed contracts with a number of government agencies involved with KBI, the latest being last week's with the Ministry of Health, which included a number of initiatives to promote investments in the field and provide the ideal environment for this sector as both parties have abided by a time table.