Saudi-Italian Investment Forum kicks off

The Saudi-Italian Investment Forum started on Monday, where Italy and Saudi Arabia will seek to create and establish mutually beneficial business and trade relations. 

The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Investment (MISA) hosted the Italian business delegation, led by Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio, who travelled to the Arab country with the aim of exploring new investment opportunities.

The forum was attended by a large number of private sector representatives from both countries, and dealt with issues related to mobility, tourism, infrastructure, culture, finance and renewable energies.

Trade relations have long been developing between the two countries, something that Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni Silveri emphasised: "We firmly believe that the Kingdom is the gateway to the greater Middle East and that there is the potential to dramatically increase our reciprocal trade exchange in the next five years".

"Italy is one of the Kingdom's top five trading partners worldwide and Saudi Arabia is our main partner in the region... Our bilateral trade exceeded $10 billion in 2015," he noted.

This will serve as a starting point for Italian investors to learn about the support services available to help their business relations, thanks to "Invest Saudi", Saudi Arabia's investment promotion platform.

This platform is a key part of the "Vision 2030" plan, promoted by the Kingdom's Ministry of Investment, which aims to develop and grow Saudi Arabia socially and economically. 

The project aims to enable local companies, regardless of their size, to partner internationally, thereby assisting investment in Saudi industrial capital and making it as agile and simple as possible. 

The forum is a demonstration of the effectiveness of this project, which is slowly beginning to yield results, in its aim to enable Saudi Arabia to grow and establish relations of interest with the rest of the world.