Russia promises Saudi Arabia tens of billions in investments
Russia is prepared to increase its investment in the Saudi Arabian economy, said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), during the Future Investment Initiative forum in Riyadh.
Dmitriev says that “many companies from the petrochemical sector and other sectors” have expressed interest in investing in Saudi Arabia.
“We believe that, alongside our partners, we will bring in billions and tens of billions of dollars of investment into Saudi Arabia,” he stated.
He noted that it is too early to talk about investors’ interest in Saudi Arabia declining due to the scandal surrounding the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.
“We believe that the tragedy in Istanbul will be carefully investigated by the Saudi authorities. We believe that all guilty parties will be punished… And so we think it is still too early to talk about any reduction in investments. We see many American and European investors here,” Dmitriev observed.
In January, the head of the RDIF suggested that Russians’ pension savings be invested in the Saudi economy.
The Russian pension funds could participate in an initial public offering (IPO) of the state oil company Saudi Aramco, which Riyadh has been planning since 2016, expecting to raise at least $2 trillion.
Investing in Saudi Aramco shares could strengthen the collaboration between Russia and Saudi Arabia, the world’s second largest oil producer, Dmitriev explained at the time.
“Expanding this collaboration for many years will be very useful for the market. It showed its effectiveness when we strove to balance demand and supply, instead of setting a goal of achieving a certain oil price,” he emphasized.