Buoyed by the ambitious objectives of the National Investment Strategy, the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA) has signed 49 major investment deals worth at least $925 million in the second quarter of 2022. This is set to create about 2,000 new jobs in diverse sectors such as advanced manufacturing, construction and real estate, ICT, tourism, entertainment and sports, says MISA’s Q2 2022 Investment Highlights report.

Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Investment, said: “The National Investment Strategy is a catalyst to deliver on our Vision 2030 national objectives of seeing the private sector contribute 65% to GDP and growing foreign direct investment to 5.7% of GDP. Despite global headwinds, we are seeing strong interest from global investors in diverse industries to partner with Saudi Arabia.”

Some of the major deals include a $133.3 million agreement between the Saudi Ports Authority and DP World to build a logistics park at Jeddah Islamic Port and a $37 million funding round led by global finance giant Mastercard into Saudi e-commerce firm HyperPay to expand the kingdom’s digital payment ecosystem.

Other investments reported by MISA are a strategic agreement with pharmaceutical multinational Novartis to grow Saudi Arabia’s biopharmaceutical capabilities, a $50 million investment by Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures into Saudi fintech Wahed and a deal by Ma’aden to build the world’s largest solar-powered steam plant to be used to refine bauxite into alumina.

Alongside covering these and other deals, MISA’s Investment Highlights report analyses macroeconomic indicators and highlights investment opportunities available to local and foreign investors.