List of all articles filed under “saudi-arabia-interviews” category.
I think this is a transit period and that probably over the next 6 to 9 months it will recover again. However I see big potential in the African and North African market. This will be our focus for next year.
We have two issues here. As you said, there are many new laws, but there is also development. There has been substantial development of the e-platforms in Saudi Arabia for interacting with the government and that has substantially eased the burden when it comes to operations. Most of the materials that we deal with here in Saudi Arabia are available locally.
The market for IT services grew at about 12 to 13%.
L’Azurde started in Saudi Arabia 35 years ago. We have expanded to become the largest gold and jewelry manufacturer in the Middle East and North Africa region. We are the fourth largest in the world. This has happened thanks to continuous investments in technology, innovation, and manufacturing. Today, we invest in talented people and machines. We have more than 2,500 craftsmen and more than 600 different kinds of machines developing jewelry.
The top 10 companies are still fairly profitable, and their profitability has increased, but the other companies– some 32 beyond the top 10– are not experiencing the same results.
I believe our government will support the mining sector as the third pillar of the Saudi economy, and in the near future, I am sure that new investors will come to invest in the mining sector especially for precious, base metals and also in the industrial minerals.
We were established in 2010 and since then we have invested in around 16 companies but it is common to pull your investments out of certain companies sometimes which we have done two or three times. Of those 16 companies, 3 are international, 3 are JVs locally here but with international partners and the remaining companies are start-ups based on Intellectual Properties emerging from the university.
The increase in the expenditures in healthcare has been dramatically higher over the past decade, from about 3% of GDP to about 7% of GDP. That is significant; if we continue on that path soon enough we will be getting up-to the 15% or even 20% level and that would be a huge burden for the government.
King Fahad Medical City is one of the largest medical complexes in the world. Most of it began a long time ago in the ‘70s when the idea was first formulated and then the building commenced in 1983. It became operational in 2003 and now after a decade of operation it has become one of the benchmarks in the Middle East and we have the vision to become an international benchmark.
The value of projects planned or underway in the Kingdom increased by 90% in April 2014. The projects under construction are estimated to be worth USD 727 billion. A recent report issued by NCB, however, described a decrease of 25% in total value of the awarded contracts.
