Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, announced on Tuesday a program aimed at strengthening the partnership with the private sector for local companies in Saudi Arabia.
It has the aim of developing a stronger partnership between the government and the private sector and accelerating the achievement of strategic objectives to increase the resilience of the Kingdom’s economy and support sustainable growth and prosperity.
Crown Prince Mohammed stressed during the inauguration of the “Shareek” program that it is a strategic priority of the Kingdom to have a vibrant and thriving private sector. Such a sector can play a pivotal role in the continuing growth, development and success of the nation’s economic prosperity. The private sector will continue to play a vital role in helping the country to achieve the ambitions outlined in Vision 2030.
He said: “Building a vibrant and prosperous private sector is one of the national priorities for the Kingdom and that is why we are today inaugurating a new and more powerful era in terms of cooperation and partnership between the government and private sector. The Shareek program will strengthen the partnership with the private sector and has the objective of supporting local companies and enabling them to unlock new local investments valued at SAR 5 Trillion through the end of 2030.”
He added that the Kingdom will undergo a step-change in investment over the coming period.
Three trillion riyals will be injected by the Public Investment Fund through 2030, as announced earlier this year; four trillion riyals will be invested under the National Investment Strategy, details of which will be announced soon; and five trillion from the large companies of the private sector, supported by the Shareek Program.
Total investment injected from these three sources in the national economy is expected to reach 12 trillion riyals by 2030. This does not include government spending of ten trillion riyals over the next ten years, and private consumption spending, expected to reach five trillion riyals by 2030. The total across all these sources will reach 27 trillion riyals, or USD7 trillion, over the next ten years, said Crown Prince Mohammed.
“The Shareek program will help the private sector create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and will boost the contribution of the private sector to GDP by up to 65% by the end of the decade as part of the goals of Vision 2030,” he added.
“The importance of the Shareek program is not limited to enhancing the private sector's role in the sustainable growth of the national economy. We see it as a long-term investment in the Kingdom's future and prosperity, based on stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors.”
Shareek will contribute to the continued progress of the Saudi economy's ranking among the top global economies, with the goal of rising to its current 18th position to 15th, alongside boosting confidence in the Kingdom's investment environment.
Details of the program will be released soon and will be directly supervised by Crown Prince Mohammed, alongside a committee of ministers and senior government officials.
A series of enablement levers across different business support areas have been created, whereby participating large companies can benefit with the goal of growing their local investments through the Shareek program.
Shareek will operate under the relevant approved guidelines from the World Trade Organization (WTO), and in accordance with other relevant domestic and international regulations and policies.
The program will maximize the resilience and competitiveness of large Saudi companies, both regionally and globally. It will also work as a stimulus for those who will receive support to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The inception of the new program positions Saudi Arabia as an enabler of business and a supportive environment for investment, through proactive, innovative and forward-looking measures.
The first Memorandums of Understanding between large companies and Shareek are expected to be signed starting in June.
