RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is seeking to raise $55 billion from a privatization plan, the Kingdom’s finance minister said on Thursday.
Mohammed Al-Jadaan said the Kingdom had recently announced a privatization plan that includes identifying 160 projects in 16 sectors, including asset sales and public-private partnerships.
“Our goal is to secure about $55 billion from the privatization plan, of which $16.5 billion will be in public-private partnerships.”
He added: “We are looking forward to using the private sector to manage and finance infrastructure, health services, urban transport networks, school buildings, airport services, water desalination plants, and sewage treatment through these partnerships, in order to ensure better, more cost-effective and efficient implementation that reduces the use of materials and energy, while providing improved products and services for the benefit of citizens and the world at large.”
Al-Jadaan opened a high-level conference entitled “2021 G20 Infrastructure Investors Dialogue: Financing Sustainable Infrastructure for the Recovery,” along with Italian Minister of Economy and Finance Daniele Franco, in the presence of a number of G20 finance ministers, international and regional organizations, representatives of the private sector, senior investors and asset managers.
The finance minister said that infrastructure plays an important role in promoting economic activities, fundamentally supports productivity, and provides a solid foundation for robust, inclusive and sustainable growth.
 Al-Jadaan added that financing sustainable development and quality infrastructure are some of the concerns of the G20, and that bridging the infrastructure financing gap required more effort.
Al-Jadaan said that the G20, under the Kingdom’s presidency last year, prepared the Group of Twenty report, in cooperation with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in cooperation with institutional investors and asset managers in infrastructure.
The report that was welcomed by leaders of the G20 countries, as well as finance ministers and central bank governors.
The conference aims to benefit from the positive results achieved by the group during the past year, which witnessed many forums with infrastructure investors.
Saudi Arabia is a member of the G20 troika, and the Kingdom is keen to support the group’s efforts to achieve strong, balanced, sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
The conference is an opportunity to present an action-oriented agenda for dialogue with investors toward investment in transformational infrastructure, which will be discussed at a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in October under the Italian presidency of the G20.