A senior official of BlackRock, a global investment management corporation, says that Saudi Arabia represents an attractive, resilient investment at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the world economy.
"BlackRock supports and encourages the initiatives and the measures taken by the Kingdom's government, which indicate the Kingdom's keenness and commitment to long-term fiscal sustainability, pointing out that the global economic environment seeks to achieve the highest levels of quality and returns."
"The Kingdom is an attractive investment on both relative and absolute levels, and international investors are interested in obtaining solid sources of returns. The Kingdom retains many attractive investment opportunities including investment in infrastructure, Terrence Keeley, global head official institutions group at BlackRock, said during a webinar entitled "Saudi Arabia: A Sustainable Investment Ecosystem," on Tuesday night.
The event was organized by the Communication and Financial Knowledge Center, affiliated to the Ministry of Finance, in cooperation with the National Debt Management Center, and was attended by a number of government sector officials, representatives of the international financial institutions and over 500 investors.
Commenting on the Saudi government's initiatives to mitigate the financial and economic impacts of Coronavirus for the private sector, investors and the investment climate as a whole, Kelly said: "Compared to other countries around the world, Saudi Arabia has very low government debt and strong commitment to business — the Kingdom climbed jumped 30 spots in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business 2020 index earlier this year."
"Saudi Arabia is for us a place… where there's a possibility for resilient investment opportunities," Keeley remarked.
Meanwhile, the President of the National Debt Management Center, Fahad Al-Saif, highlighted the efforts and accomplishment of the NDMC since its establishment, and touched upon recently announced fiscal measures, and reconfirmed "Saudi Arabia is fully committed in consolidating its public finances and is striking an optimum balance between supporting economic activity while being fiscally prudent".
Al-Saif added that the 2020 funding plan to upsize its issuance program and increase by maximum of SR100 billion in addition to the announced SR120 billion earlier in the year through diversified funding sources.