Saudi, US companies sign 36 MoUs

NEW YORK – Apart from high ranking government officials, more than 200 leading economic figures and business leaders from Saudi Arabia and the United States participated in the second edition of the Saudi-US CEO Forum held in New York on Tuesday.

The forum, with the theme of “An era of Transformation: From Vision to Implementation,” was organized by the Saudi Center for Strategic Partnerships on the sidelines of the current state visit of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, to the United States.

The main thrust of the forum was achieving political and social reforms in a broad spectrum within the Vision 2030 through establishing new partnerships, further bolstering economic ties, and expanding mutual trust, understanding and cultural awareness.

The forum gathered ministers and senior officials from both the countries as well as chief executive officers of major Saudi and US companies in various fields of industry, trade and economy.

Those who addressed the forum included Minister of Finance Muhammad Al-Jadaan, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Commerce and Investment Dr. Majed Al-Qasabi, Lubna Suliman Olayan, CEO of Olayan Financing Company, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, and Adena Friedman, CEO and president of NASDAQ.

Five meetings of experts and four meetings with the decision makers were held as part of the forum.

Discussions also focused on enhancing bilateral trade and investments, identifying potential enablers to closer economic ties and deeper business relationships, and exploring partnership and investment opportunities catalyzed by the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and exchanging impactful ideas and experiences to facilitate best practices.

The forum aims to highlight opportunities of increasing and developing bilateral investments and identifying challenges facing the flow of inter-investment between the two sides and contributing to find solutions.

The forum witnessed the signing of 36 memoranda of understanding worth multi billions of dollars by top executives of leading US and Saudi companies.

These MoUs aimed at building new partnerships in a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, manufacturing, recreation, education, information technology and communications. These include a MoU between Saudi Aramco and Google for partnership in national cloud service and opportunities in technology field, a five-year initiative between Geographic Channel and the King Abdulaziz World Center for Culture (ITHRA), partnership between Saudi Aramco and Raytheon for launching national Internet security services, and MoU between Saudi Industrial Development Fund and JP Morgan to explore cooperation in industrial financing in the Kingdom. Another MoU is for partnership between Al Rasheed International Company and SOS International Company for the provision of medical services with a focus on clinics in remote regions of the Kingdom.

MoUs signed include new partnerships in various sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, entertainment, education and ICT. Among the most prominent were:

• A partnership between Saudi Aramco and Google focusing on cloud services and other technological opportunities.

• A five-year initiative between King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture and National Geographic.

• A partnership between Aramco and Raytheon to establish national Internet security services.

• MoU between Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) and JP Morgan to discuss cooperation in industrial finance in Saudi Arabia.

• A partnership between Al-Rasheed International and SOS to provide medical services in the Kingdom with emphasis on clinics in remote areas.