Chinese companies have expressed interest in participating in Saudi Arabia’s privatisation programme as part of their investment plans for the Kingdom, state-owned Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday. 

Mohamed bin Abdulaziz Al-Ajlan, Chairman of Saudi Chinese Business Council at the Federation of Saudi Chambers underscored Chinese interest during his speech at the Forum of Heads of Chinese-Arab Friendship Associations, according to the SPA report.  

The report quoted him as saying that Chinese companies have expressed interest in taking part in privatisation projects in various government sectors, in addition to infrastructure projects.  

Al-Ajlan also praised the cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and China in the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, mainly with regard to the production capacity. 

In May 2021, Saudi finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan told the UK’s Financial Times newspaper that he expects to raise $38 billion through asset sales and $16.5 billion through public-private partnerships (PPP) by 2025 as part of the privatisation programme. 

He said the Saudi government has identified 160 projects in 16 sectors for privatisation through 2025. 

The Privatisation Programme is one of the executive programmes launched by the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA) to achieve the objectives of Vision 2030. 

(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon) 

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com) 

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