Top Investors Brush off Khashoggi Affair and Pour Money into Saudi Arabia

Top Investors Brush off Khashoggi Affair and Pour Money into Saudi Arabia

The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi Arabian embassy had created a lot of heat on investors to stop investing in the country. However, it is now quite clear that the investors have decided to brush off that affair and pour money in lucrative sectors. Although the Saudi government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have denied any involvement in the case, it damaged relations with the western world. As a matter of fact, some companies in certain sectors went so far as to dissociate from their involvement in Saudi Arabia.

However, the biggest investors have now decided to get back to business in the country. Nick Wilson, who is the head of the Gulf Investment Fund, said as much regarding the fact that business must go on despite the shocking incident. His fund is planning to invest more in the country. Wilson said, “There’s too much opportunity for investment in Saudi Arabia. A nasty thing like that happens and shakes people up for a couple of weeks, but at the end of the day business is business.” In addition to that, some of the blue chip corporations of the western world are going to honour their commitments and pour money into the country.

For instance, Honeywell International’s $3.5 billion project with Saudi oil giant Aramco is going to go forward as planned, while Dow Chemicals is not only going to complete its polymer plant worth $100 million but complete a study on another project by next year. Needless to say, things are going to continue business as usual, and it is understandable considering the fact how much money is at stake. Back in 2017, General Electric signed a deal worth $15 billion with the Saudi government and a spokesperson reiterated that it was going to honour its commitments. He said, “We continue to build upon our agreements to support local infrastructure and growth across the power, oil and gas, healthcare, aviation and digital sectors.”

The Saudi authorities and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are anxious to make the country as friendly to business as possible, after the events of the past few months. The Prince also toured China, India and Pakistan last month and signed business deals that amounted to around $90 billion. Last but not least, Saudi Arabia is trying to attract investments in the country and offered attractive breaks to investors as part of a decade long industrial programme. They expect to generate around $427 billion on investments over the next decade.

editor
Leon Teague has recently joined FinanceOrange team as a Sub-Editor. He has years of experience in writing about finance industry and also worked for local newspapers previously. He is an intense traveller. In his free time, he loves to explore unexplored places.

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