Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah yesterday inaugurated the “Fourth Saudi-US Business Opportunities Forum” held in Riyadh under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud - may Allah protect him - and organized by the Ministry of Commerce with the participation of a number of decision makers and senior government officials and a number of businessmen and women from both friendly countries in an effort to elevate the new strategic partnership between the two countries to meet the requirements of the 21st century in various fields.

Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah

Related economic relations

In his speech, Dr. Al-Rabeeah praised the depth of relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, expressing his pride in the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for the forum, which is being held this year in the Kingdom after holding its three sessions in the United States of America, pointing out that this indicates his interest - may God protect him - and his keenness to push these relations in all fields to broader horizons and fruitful cooperation in implementation of the declaration issued at the end of his auspicious visit to Washington and the announcement of the two countries to launch strategic cooperation towards the 21st century.

Dr. Al-Rabeeah touched on the importance of the forum in terms of the strategic cooperation between the two countries towards the 21st century, which is the first of its kind. <Dr. Al-Rabeeah touched on the history of economic relations between the two countries starting from the establishment of the Kingdom until now, which went through stages, each of which carried a distinctive history of foreign relations at various levels; where these Saudi-US economic relations began in 1931 when King Abdulaziz Al Saud - may Allah have mercy on him - granted the right to explore for oil in the Kingdom to an American company, indicating that the historic visit of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, may Allah protect him, to the United States in 2015 had a great impact on the relations of the two countries, wishing the forum to be successful and successful in serving common interests and higher directives of the two countries.

The forum is the most important economic support mechanism

<The Minister of Commerce considered that the forum is one of the most important mechanisms supporting trade and investment relations and the business sector in the two countries, and has a positive impact on achieving trade and investment progress between them; as the governments of the two countries rely on supporting and developing trade and investment exchange, especially since joint efforts have led to remarkable progress in increasing the volume of trade exchange between the Kingdom and the United States of America until it reached (248) billion riyals in 2014, representing the value of Saudi exports to America 163 billion riyals and imports from America 85 billion riyals, while America ranks first among the ten largest importing countries

Balanced policies

For his part, Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf called for strengthening efforts at the local and international levels to adopt balanced policies to stimulate economic activity and global trade and maintain the stability of the global financial system, in addition to applying structural reforms aimed at stimulating private investment and raising productivity rates, and on the other hand the Kingdom works to face the challenges by adopting appropriate reforms for each of them.

Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf The Minister of Finance pointed out that the growth of the global economy is still below expectations; global growth prospects have declined since October 2015 in all regions, noting that recent months have witnessed increased volatility in global financial markets, which led to restricted financing in global financial markets, especially for emerging markets.

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An ideal environment for foreign investment

On the current state of investment, SAGIA Governor Engineer Abdullatif Al-Othman said that the current time is the ideal time to invest in the Kingdom and this is a message to local and foreign investors alike due to the basic ingredients; the largest in the region and fourth globally in the speed of growth and its distinctive geographical location, as well as the regulations and investment environment and the clear vision of the government in development and the private sector.

About the current state of investment, Engineer Abdullatif Al-Othman revealed that the current time is the optimal circumstance in investing inside the Kingdom. Engineer Al-Othman revealed that work is currently underway between SAGIA and the Ministry of Commerce to define standards in the retail sector and recommendations will be submitted by the end of this month. He touched on the investment system, which he considered advanced and has many advantages that many overlook, as most fields are available for investment, as well as the possibility of full ownership in most activities.