Latest news with #PublicInvestmentFundPrivateSectorForum
CairoScene
15-02-2025
- Business
- CairoScene
Saudi Arabian Residential Suburb Investments Exceed SAR 140 Billion
Investments in these residential suburbs involve the partnership of 65 real estate developers. Over SAR 140 billion have been invested in Saudi Arabian residential suburbs, Minister of Municipalities and Housing Majed Al-Hogail, announced during the third edition of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund Private Sector Forum in Riyadh. Investments in these residential suburbs involve the partnership of 65 real estate developers. Over SAR 24 billion have been invested in current municipal projects to enhance the country's private sector. The total number of Saudi workers in the private sector exceeded half a million men and women working in more than 318,000 establishments. According to the ministry, the Kingdom has recently adopted a change in its approach when dealing with urban development. Some of the changes include adopting a new generation of regional plans, and updating its municipal guides, requirements, and standards. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is a two-day event showcasing PIF, its portfolio companies, and the business opportunities offered to attract hopeful investors and suppliers.
Arab News
13-02-2025
- Business
- Arab News
PIF's ROSHN, Johnson Controls Arabia ink deal to propel energy efficiency in Saudi Arabia
RIYADH: Saudi developer ROSHN has signed a deal with Johnson Controls Arabia to introduce advanced cooling technology, strengthening the Kingdom's push for energy efficiency, said a senior executive. In an interview with Arab News on the sidelines of the first day of the Public Investment Fund Private Sector Forum taking place from Feb. 12-13 in Riyadh, Johnson Controls Arabia CEO Mohanad Al-Shaikh explained that the new deal signed with the PIF firm seeks to supply a specialized type of engineered variable refrigerant flow technology that is new to the region to encourage local manufacturing. This falls in line with Saudi Arabia's efforts to localize technologies and develop national capabilities in the energy sector, supporting the goals outlined in the Kingdom's Vision 2030. It also aligns well with Saudi Arabia's commitment to have 50 percent of its electricity capacity from renewable sources by 2030. 'It's (VRF) a technology that allows for a higher level of efficiency of systems to be included in buildings. It targets actually a couple of things. The main thing is the energy efficiency. The energy efficiency ratio of the VRF technology is much better than the traditional on-off technologies that we've always used in our houses,' Al-Shaikh said. 'It's a technology that allows for higher level of efficiencies and it also allows building owners to use less number of machines. So, even for the look and feel of buildings, using this technology would be much better than what we're used to in our region,' he added. The CEO emphasized that this step aims to promote localization and local manufacturing, boosting the private sector's contribution to gross domestic product and increasing the share of industrialization within it, which is in line with Vision 2030. During the interview, Al-Shaikh highlighted the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning market from a macro level. 'HVAC as an industry, you're talking about a total market size of $120 billion in the world. In Saudi, we're talking about SR18 billion ($4.79 billion), the annual sales of HVAC systems. This is growing, actually, in 2025 versus 2024, we're expecting about 8 percent increase year over year,' he said. The CEO also underlined how ROSHN has been expanding, saying: 'I mean, we're seeing the projects all across the Kingdom, and this is for us, hopefully, is the first of many, to come and we have signed, this with ROSHN, but we also have other signatures coming up with other PIF companies for mega and giga-projects.' Al-Shaikh then tackled Johnson Controls Arabia's operations in the Kingdom. 'We are a company that was established long, long ago. So, our first project was in Jeddah about 75 years ago, under the brand name York. We have about 26 different brands under the Johnson Controls Arabia umbrella. Our flagship, when it comes to HVAC, is the York brand name. Our manufacturing facility in Jeddah is the largest in the Middle Eastern and Africa region in terms of the production capacity and also the footprint of the facility. We have about 11 production lines,' he said. The CEO added: 'We do manufacture products that range from what we use for small to the large to big mega and giga jobs like airports, medical facilities, and cities. And we also have within the facility, we have full-fledged research and development center, labs, testing labs for small residential units and also up to 600-tonne units, and I'm talking about large testing facility.' Al-Shaikh emphasized that this came as a result of collaboration as well as Saudi Arabia's vision to localize. He also disclosed that products manufactured in Saudi today actually comply with products sold in the North American market and Europe. 'This VRF technology, same technology with no modification, has the same level of certification. We're able to supply it to other places globally. And as I said, the manufacturing facility has allowed us to sell to about 26 different countries in the region. Of course, in the Middle East, but also we've reached the North American market by supplying scroll chillers technologies to the US this past year,' the CEO said. Al-Shaikh mentioned the company's production capacity, noting that until two years ago, it only manufactured 30 percent of the products it sold in the Kingdom. 'We closed 2024, whereby we are manufacturing 90 percent of what we sell in Saudi the total capacity of the factory,' he said. 'We do have a target in 2025 to have almost 25 to 30 percent of that production capacity going for the North American market because, I mean, our technology, the certifications we have, the type of transfer of technology is allowing us actually not only to serve the Saudi market, but the regional and the global market,' the CEO added. Moving on to suppliers, Al-Shaikh justified the long-term plan that will potentially see them residing in the Kingdom. 'We are dealing with almost 400 suppliers in our manufacturing facilities. We use about 40,000 different parts to manufacture our finished products. Unfortunately, many of the suppliers are not residing in the Kingdom, and it's actually a challenge for local manufacturers because when it comes to supply chain resilience, you've seen during Corona time, it was an issue. So, while you're manufacturing the finished goods in Saudi, if your supply chain is not also surrounding you, then it becomes an issue,' he said. 'What we're trying to do now in collaborations with different partners like the PIF and other companies is to localize and increase our localization targets year over year, whereby and attracting manufacturers of parts to be also near our facility or at least be in the Kingdom. So, the perfect condition is where you're creating that integrated supply chain similar to the automotive industry where everyone is actually residing in one cluster,' the CEO added. Al-Shaikh also tackled the outlook on the future of the building technologies and export market in Saudi Arabia. 'Now, with the development of AI and the machine learnings, the focus is shifting not only on the HVAC, on the hardware, but also shifting to on the IT and how you bridge the gap between the IT and the OT, the operational technologies and the information technologies. Because when we talk about net zero and the aim and the aspiration of countries and companies to reach that level, working on the hardware by itself will not allow you to achieve that net zero,' he said. 'So there has to be a linkage between the OT and the IT, and that's what we're trying to do in our manufacturing facility,' the CEO added.
Arab News
13-02-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Saudi construction sector issues 3,800 new licenses amid regulatory reforms
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's construction sector saw significant growth in 2024, with 3,800 new licenses added in just one year, bringing the total to 8,900, according to a top official. During a panel discussion at the Public Investment Fund Private Sector Forum in Riyadh, Fahad Al-Hashem, assistant deputy minister at the Ministry of Investment, stated that the surge reflects increasing foreign investment and regulatory reforms aimed at streamlining market entry. 'In the number of licenses, we had 8,900 construction companies licensed in the Kingdom, last year alone we had 3,800 companies licensed in the Kingdom,' Al-Hashem stated. The deputy minister highlighted the broader impact of these reforms, noting that real estate developers also saw a rise in licenses — addiing 244 in 2024 to the 446 already issued. 'This is just to showcase the uptake from foreign investors into the market, and we hope to see an increase with these upcoming reforms,' he said. Al-Hashem emphasized the Kingdom's efforts to enhance its regulatory framework, with 800 improvements identified since the launch of Vision 2030, 80 percent of which have already been implemented. One major shift was the replacement of the licensing regime with a registration system to simplify market entry. 'We are working continuously with our colleagues across the government to really reduce the timeframe from being really interested to entering the market to being fully operational,' he added. Addressing cost challenges in the sector, Al-Hashem pointed to initiatives such as the establishment of an international contractor office within the ministry. 'We collaborate with stakeholders to streamline such service-wide journey into the market, to ensure ample supply comes into the market, in order to also add competition and ensure that project owners and investors have good returns with their capital,' he said. He underscored the government's commitment to fostering a dynamic and competitive market, stating: 'I can go on and on and on about many examples that we're seeking to liberate, add supply into the market, and constantly develop value chains to ensure that the Kingdom, as it has high ambitions, has the most conducive, the most dynamic, and most competitive market out there.' Saud Al-Sulaimani, country head of Saudi Arabia at JLL, highlighted the dual nature of the Kingdom's construction boom. 'What makes the Saudi market interesting is that there are two things happening at the same time: the redevelopment of projects as well as the development of new cities and projects,' he said.
Zawya
13-02-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Investments in developing residential suburbs exceed $37.33bln: Saudi minister
RIYADH — Minister of Municipalities and Housing Majed Al-Hogail said that investments to develop residential suburbs with the partnership of 65 real estate developers have exceeded SR140 billion. The minister said this while attending a dialogue session titled "The Ministerial vision for the government's role in supporting and empowering the private sector" during the third edition of the Public Investment Fund Private Sector Forum at King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh on Wednesday. Al-Hogail said that the current municipal projects portfolio has exceeded SR24 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 exceeded 500000 young men and women in more than 318000 t establishments. The minister said that the private sector is a partner in urban development. "Investment contracts worth about SR19 billion have been signed in the municipal sector during the last three years," he said. Al-Hogail said that the ministry has adopted a transformational approach in dealing with urban development, while working on a number of activities to achieve this, including a new generation of regional plans, and creating an ideal urban environment for residents in all cities across the Kingdom, in addition to updating municipal guides, requirements and standards. Al-Hogail said that the Saudi Vision 2030 focused greatly on economic diversification by creating new economic activities, improving the quality of services provided in cities, and improving the urban landscape. The minister 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 is clearly reflected in the economic aspects. He stressed that the contributions of the municipal and housing sectors to the gross domestic product (GDP) amounted to 14 percent of the real GDP for the year 2024, while the contributions of the construction and real estate activities sectors amounted to more than 16 percent of the total foreign direct investment flows. The two-day forum, which will conclude on Thursday, is showcasing PIF and its portfolio companies' business opportunities, signaling potential opportunities for investors and suppliers, and maximizing the windows of cooperation. © Copyright 2022 The Saudi Gazette. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Arab News
12-02-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Ma'aden to test data from Aramco warehouses to inform new mines plan
RIYADH: The Saudi Arabian Mining Co., or Ma'aden, will analyze terabytes of data from Aramco's warehouses as part of its efforts to build two mines, its CEO revealed. In a discussion titled 'Ma'aden: Saudi Arabia's Mining Industry Pioneer' on the first day of the Public Investment Fund Private Sector Forum, taking place from Feb. 12-13 in Riyadh, Robert Wilt explained that the company intends to test the core samples using artificial intelligence as part of its 2025 key performance indicators. This falls in line with the Kingdom's goal to increase the mining industry's gross domestic product contribution from $17 billion to $75 billion by 2035. It also aligns well with Saudi Arabia's efforts to establish mining as the third pillar of the nation's industrial economy. 'We are in the process of finalizing the joint venture with Aramco to partner together to explore all of the Arabian platform. Our efforts to date have been focused on the Arabian Shield. Aramco has been exploring the platform for oil and gas now for 80 some years. They've got, I can't tell you how many terabytes of data and core samples in warehouses as big as this hall that have not been tested for minerals,' Wilt said. 'Another one of our KPIs this year is to find two mines by mining that data using artificial intelligence. So, we're throwing technology, AI, digitization, and innovation across everything from exploration all the way through processing to reduce costs, make it more sustainable, and most of all for us is acceleration,' he added. During the talk, the CEO also shed light on the fact that Ma'aden is utilizing 72 percent of its exploration budget this year on copper. This comes as the company has not 'really spent as much time looking for the energy transition metals and some of the other minerals that we know are here,' Wilt said. He added: 'Just this year, we've announced two or three major gold discoveries and we're on the precipice of announcing two copper discoveries. So, I can tell you the minerals are here and it's just up to us to get them out of the ground, to extract them sustainably, safely, responsibly.' The CEO also emphasized that the firm is only 10 to 15 years old and that it is already the third-largest exporter of phosphate fertilizers. 'We're the fastest growing mining company in the world for the last five years and we're the eighth-most valuable mining company in the world by market capitalization. So, a meteoric rise over the last decade and a half,' Wilt said. He added: 'We need to make this thing 10 times bigger by 2040. So, the aspiration is to not be one of the most valuable mining companies in the world — has to be the most valuable mining company in the world. It is to feed more than 10 percent of the world's population; it is to provide the metals and minerals required for the downstream diversification across the Kingdom, whether it's aluminum, copper, lithium, zinc.' The CEO noted that the company estimates that there are $2.5 trillion worth of reserves buried in the sands of Saudi Arabia. 'If you look at the $2.5 trillion, 45 percent of its phosphate, and we know where that is. We're already mining it; we're already producing it. It's the biggest part of our business,' Wilt said. 'But then some of the exotic minerals like rare earth elements, you know, we're close to being able to talk about that publicly. There's a lot of interest in the Kingdom for some from some near-stage discoveries where we're making there, so I would say probably 60 percent has been actively explored, and then the 40 percent we've got to accelerate through to the pipeline,' he added. The forum, which will unite more than 90 PIF-backed companies, seeks to strengthen supply chains, boost local manufacturing, and accelerate economic diversification under Vision 2030. Now in its third year, the event will spotlight business opportunities with the sovereign wealth fund and its portfolio companies, identify potential prospects for investors and suppliers, and expand avenues for collaboration. It will also serve as a bridge between PIF, its portfolio companies, and the private sector, reinforcing localization efforts.
