His Excellency the Minister of Municipalities and Housing, Mr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-HaqeelThe Kingdom's Vision 2030 focused heavily on economic diversification by creating new economic activities, improving the quality of services provided in cities and improving the urban landscape.
This came during a panel discussion titled “The Ministerial Vision for the Government's Role in Supporting and Empowering the Private Sector,” as part of the Public Investment Fund and Private Sector Forum in its third edition held in Riyadh.
He stressed that urban development is a comprehensive transformation that redefines the concept of cities, so that they become more sustainable, more attractive for investment, and more capable of providing a high quality of life for citizens, which in turn reflects clearly on the economic aspects, stressing that the contributions of the municipal and housing sector to GDP reached 14% of real GDP in 2024, and the contributions of the construction and real estate sectors reached more than 16% of total foreign direct investment inflows.
He explained that the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing has adopted a transformative approach in dealing with urban development, working on a number of works to achieve this, including a new generation of regional plans, creating an ideal urban environment for residents in all cities of the Kingdom, as well as updating municipal guides, requirements and standards.
He pointed out that the private sector is a partner in urban development, indicating that during the past three years only, investment contracts were signed in the municipal sector worth about 19 billion riyals, while on the housing side and through NHC, His Excellency emphasized that investments exceeded 140 billion riyals to develop residential suburbs, through partnership with 65 real estate developers.
He pointed out that the current portfolio of municipal projects has exceeded SAR 24 billion, while working to enhance the role of the private sector in this field, noting that the total number of Saudis working in the sector is more than 500,000 young men and women in more than 318,000 different establishments.
