Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began his three-weeks long visit to the United States this week, planning to visit several states as part of a political and economic agenda on the current situation in the region and the economic future under Saudi Arabia's economic transformation plan.
This is the first visit of Prince Mohammed after he assumed his position nine months ago. He visited the United States about a year ago, followed by US President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia in May.
Through these visits, US and Saudi administrations' visions became evidently compatible on both political and economic aspects.
The first economic agreement between the two countries came last year, since the beginning of Trump's mandate, through the investments of the Saudi Public Investment Fund in US infrastructure, as well as agreements involving the transfer and resettlement of some military and oil industries from the United States to Saudi Arabia.
China also reached an agreement with the United States on investment in US infrastructure last November.
Saudi Crown Prince personally manages the economic portfolio as president of the Supreme Economic Council, making many of his previous tasks have been characterized as economic in addition to being political.
At the international level, it is not surprising that the head of state or his deputy manage the economic and investment portfolio.
The importance of the Saudi Crown Prince's handling the foreign investment portfolio lies in two main points: first, foreign investment in the Kingdom is still new, so, the support of the Crown Prince is necessary at this stage for marketing foreign investment. His presence encourages international companies to seriously invest in the Kingdom.
The Crown Prince had previously managed the forum of Future Investment Initiative in October in Riyadh as part of the campaign to promote foreign investment in Saudi Arabia.
The other point is answering investors' questions about foreign investment in the Kingdom. There is almost no meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince that doesn't include the discussion of the anti-corruption crackdown that began last November, and foreign newspapers always comment on this campaign when possible investments in the kingdom are mentioned.
With this, one of the reasons for the confidence in investing in the Kingdom is the Crown Prince's readiness to directly address investors' concerns on this subject.
This visit's schedule includes several destinations, starting in Washington and moving to New York, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles all the way to California.
The purpose of the visits depends on the city itself. While the Washington visit is political, Aramco public offering is also expected to be discussed during the Crown Prince's visit to New York. The US President previously stated that the US welcomes the launch of Aramco in the New York market.
It is clear that Saudi Arabia is not in a hurry to do so, saying earlier this month that the offering could be delayed until next year.
Houston, Texas, is part of the Saudi visit schedule and it may include agreements and partnerships between Saudi and US oil and petrochemical companies led by Aramco and SABIC from the Saudi side.
A Saudi exhibition will be held in Boston during the Prince's visit to the city under the supervision of several technical and educational Saudi bodies such as King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, King Abdullah Unversity of Science and Technology, Neom, and others.
At the exhibition, the Saudi authorities will also share their partnerships with major US universities such as MIT, Harvard and Berkeley. These partnerships aim to transfer science, technology and expertise from the US to Saudi Arabia. Many of these partnerships are devoted to the transfer of science to the Kingdom, in particular for the benefit of the industrial field.
The visit to Los Angeles is purely economic with several meetings expected to be held between Saudi delegation and major companies such as Walt Disney and Comcast as the kingdom invests in the entertainment sector.
The film industry alone is expected to bring nearly $1 billion in the next five years, a figure that can be reached if life expectancy is taken into consideration in the kingdom.
Public Investment Fund recently bought a share in Endeavor Talent Agency, a talent management company in Los Angeles, for about $400 million, according to international sources.
The visit to Silicon Valley is one of the most important visits of the Crown Prince, with reports suggesting a possible meeting between the Crown Prince and Google and Apple officials.
Trade agreements between the Kingdom and its companies and US companies are expected to amount to over $35 billion, but this figure is nothing compared to the future of investment partnerships between Saudi Arabia and the United States, especially as both countries seek investments that serve their common interests.
* Researcher specialized in financial management
