The Industrial Development Fund invited investors to submit their requests to finance industrial projects with high technical content that contribute to raising the competitiveness of the national industry and enhancing the role of industry in transforming the national economy into a knowledge-based economy, indicating the need to distribute investment opportunities in various regions of the Kingdom, especially promising regions that find interest and motivation from the Fund management.
A report issued by the Fund said that the loans provided by the Fund during the first half of the fiscal year 1436/1437 AH 2015 about 69 loans were provided to contribute to the financing of 60 new industrial projects and the expansion of nine existing industrial projects, with total credits amounting to 4.2 billion riyals, while their total investments amounted to 13.14 billion riyals, an increase of 10% in the number of approved loans, 64% in their value and 173% in their total investments compared to the first half of the previous fiscal year 1435/1436H. The report expected that these projects will provide 4373 direct job opportunities, which is a positive indicator of the confidence of investors in the industrial sector in the Kingdom and reflects their positive expectations for the development path in the Kingdom in the coming years.
The Fund's approved loans for promising areas during the first half of the current fiscal year amounted to 34 loans worth 1325 million riyals, representing 49% of the number of loans and 32% of the value of the Fund's approved loans in the first half of the current fiscal year, while this percentage did not exceed 14% and 15% only in terms of number and value before the application of the controls to raise the financing ratio to no more than 75% of the project cost instead of 50% and a repayment period of no more than 20 years instead of 15 years for projects established in these areas, at the end of 1432 AH.
It is worth mentioning that since its establishment until the end of the first half of the current fiscal year 1436/1437H, the Saudi Industrial Development Fund provided about 3838 loans totaling 122.184 million riyals to help establish 2777 industrial projects across the Kingdom: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif"; color: #333333;">.
The Fund's performance during the first half of the current fiscal year witnessed clear trends in the growth of new industrial investment projects compared to expansion projects for existing factories, the number of new industrial projects reached 60 projects compared to nine loans for expansion projects for existing factories, the loans provided for new projects represent about 87% of the number of the Fund's loans during the first half of the current year.The value of loans approved for these new projects amounted to about 4 billion riyals, accounting for 95% of the total value of loans approved during the first half of this year, while the volume of investments amounted to 12.7 billion riyals, accounting for about 97% of the total investments of approved projects during the same period.
