RIYADH: Part of the national drive for economic diversification and raising awareness that there’s more to the industrious kingdom’s than just oil, the Saudi Export Development Authority (Saudi Exports) launched three years ago to develop exporters, promote exports, and facilitate access to international markets. Secretary General Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Alhakbani delves into Saudi Arabia’s entrepreneurial side and its ongoing industrialization, highlighting progress that people overseas may not be aware of.
Saudi Arabia, since its inception, has realized the importance of diversification and consequently has developed multiple plans over the past 50 years. The kingdom has been successful to a certain extent in terms of diversification; the creation of several entities to promote and develop the industrial sector is a good indicator of it. We are used to the fluctuation of oil prices; it’s not something new. But I think the big difference now is that we are not accepting the cyclicality of oil prices anymore. Therefore, our National Transformation Plan is now being revamped and refocused to push the diversification agenda forward.
Diversification has a different spin now, a different focus and emphasis if I may say. In the past we have seen high growth in the industrial sector, increasing the number of factories from about 4,000 to 7,000 since 2006 – that’s an 80% increase. But that industrial capacity was geared towards serving the economic development of the kingdom and meeting the internal demand.
The difference this time is the overall increase of Saudi exports, around 10% to 12%, witnessed in the past 10 years, and the creation of the Saudi Export Development Authority (Saudi Exports), our entity. We started off three years ago with the mission to develop exporters, promote exports, and facilitate access to international markets beyond our own internal demand and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. Exporting is always one of the most important indicators of the development achieved by a country and will be a pillar and an accelerator for the country’s diversification plans.
