RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) aims to increase its assets under management to 1.5 trillion riyals ($400 billion) by 2020 as part of the country’s Vision 2030, an economic reform plan aimed at boosting private-sector growth and developing non-oil industries.
The country’s main sovereign wealth fund, which is expected to receive proceeds from the planned sale of 5 percent of state oil company Saudi Aramco’s shares, has currently around $230 billion worth of assets under management.
PIF plans to create 20,000 direct domestic jobs, and 256,000 construction jobs by 2020. This will increase PIF’s contribution to Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product from 4.4 percent to 6.3 percent, it said in a statement on Wednesday, during a huge investment conference in Riyadh arranged by the fund.
Investments will be in sectors such as real estate and infrastructure as well as in new areas of activity in the Saudi economy through the establishment of companies such as the Saudi Arabian Military Industries company and the Saudi Real Estate Refinancing Company.
One of the biggest tasks under PIF’s responsibility is the delivery of a $500 billion plan to build a business and industrial zone extending into Jordan and Egypt.
PIF will also seek to maximize value in the fund’s existing assets and has set a new target to increase total shareholder return to 4-5 percent from 3 percent, it said on Wednesday.
“The PIF Program represents a vital milestone as we work toward realizing Vision 2030,” Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al-Saud, the plan’s architect, said in a statement.
Outside of Saudi Arabia, PIF’s investments will be in a number of assets such as fixed-income, public equity, private equity and debt, real estate, infrastructure and alternative investments such as hedge funds, the fund said.
Saudi Arabia’s PIF aims to manage over $400 billion in assets by 2020
Saudi Arabia’s PIF aims to manage over $400 billion in assets by 2020
Saudi kitchen to provide 24,000 daily meals to Palestinians in Gaza
- The kitchen plans to produce 3,600,000 meals to Palestinians in central Gaza and to enable the employment of 40 local workers
- Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, the general supervisor of KSrelief, said that 90 percent of Gaza’s population is below the poverty line, lacking access to food, water, and medicine
RIYADH: King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, also known as KSrelief, established a central kitchen in the Gaza Strip to support the Palestinian people as part of Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian efforts.
The Saudi kitchen has begun providing 24,000 daily hot meals since the start of Ramadan last week for Palestinians in the central Gaza towns of Deir Al-Balah and Al-Qarara.
The initiative is part of the Saudi Popular Campaign for the Relief of the Palestinian People in the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the Saudi Center for Culture and Heritage.
At the end of the initiative period, the kitchen will have produced and distributed 3,600,000 meals to Palestinians in central Gaza and enabled the employment of 40 local workers, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, the general supervisor of KSrelief, told SPA that the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is “one of the largest crises in the history of humanity.”
He highlighted that Palestinians are facing displacement and urgent humanitarian needs, with 90 percent of Gaza’s population below the poverty line, lacking access to food, water, medicine, and necessities for children and infants.
Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries to launch an air bridge, as well as sea and land convoys, sending aid to Gaza via over 80 planes and dozens of vessels, through the Jordanian and Egyptian crossings.
Dr. Al-Rabeeah noted that KSrelief used airdrops to deliver aid to Gaza after October 2023, when other means were not possible, the SPA added.
He said the Saudi kitchen will serve over 36,000 families and described it as “the largest central kitchen available for a group of displaced people.”
