Foreign direct investment inflows to Saudi Arabia reached a record level during 2021, reaching $23 billion (SR86.25 billion), an increase of 326%, compared to $5.4 billion in 2020 (20.2 billion riyals).
This comes in light of the efforts made by the state to overcome the obstacles to foreign investment in the Kingdom and the huge investment opportunities available.
It is worth noting that the Kingdom attracted 65.2 billion riyals ($17.4 billion) of foreign direct investment during the first nine months of 2021, compared to 13.2 billion riyals ($3.5 billion) in the same period in 2020, an increase of 393%.
Saudi Arabia aims to increase the net foreign direct investment flowing into the country by 1816% within ten years (from 2021 to 2030), to reach 388 billion riyals (103.5 billion dollars) annually by 2030, while it was 20.2 billion riyals ($ 5.4 billion) in 2020.
According to data from the Saudi Ministry of Investment, the number of new foreign investment licenses jumped during the past year, 250.6%, to 4,439 licenses in 2021, compared to 1,266 in 2020.
It is worth noting that the Ministry implemented 112 deals with investments worth 50 billion riyals during 2021, confirming the presence of an increasing demand from new investors to invest in Saudi Arabia, in addition to the desire of existing investors to expand their existing investments.
44 international companies chose Riyadh as their regional headquarters, in response to Riyadh’s position as the largest city economy in the region.
This came as a result of the Kingdom taking many measures to attract foreign investments and facilitate their flow into the Saudi economy, which made it significantly advance in global business climate, environment and competitiveness indicators.