The governor of the sovereign wealth fund stated on Monday that Saudi Arabia seeks to increase the number of Japanese firms as it seeks to lure foreign investments to support its ambitious economic diversification strategy.
Reuters reported in October that Saudi Arabia is on the verge of getting $925 billion Public Investment Fund off the real estate projects that have been the leading focus in its development agenda over the past decades.
The new strategy will reduce its focus on sectors such as logistics, mineral exploitation, religious tourism, and artificial intelligence.
PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan added that “Japan, I think, at some stage, was one of the largest partners for Saudi Arabia, and we want to get that back by bringing in more and more Japanese companies to come and work with us.”
He further stated that “We have invested from 2017 to 2024 about $11.5 billion (in Japan), and we expect this number to go higher to about $27 billion by the end of 2030.”
In a speech at the Future Investment Initiative Priority summit in Tokyo, he also stated that the new five-year strategy of the PIF up to 2030 has just been approved by the board.
