Saudi-Turkish business Forum explores investment, tourism opportunities

Saudi Arabia and Türkiye are looking to strengthen economic, tourism, and investment ties, tapping into available opportunities to enhance collaboration across various sectors in both countries.

Speaking at the Türkiye-Saudi Arabia Investment and Business Forum held in Istanbul, Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih highlighted numerous areas for cooperation with Türkiye.

The minister noted Türkiye’s role as a major food supplier to the Kingdom and emphasized Saudi Arabia’s positive credit ratings, signaling progress towards Vision 2030 goals and its potential for affordable green energy.

Al-Falih stressed the strategic importance of Saudi-Turkish relations, underlining the significant role of private companies from both countries in boosting economic and trade ties.

He also mentioned the increasing presence of Turkish companies in Saudi Arabia, from just 20-30 a few years ago to around 400 last year.

On his part, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said that Türkiye and Saudi Arabia should seize opportunities to strengthen cooperation in certain areas of mutual interest.

He expressed readiness to collaborate with Saudi Arabia in tourism, construction, and defense industries, with potential projects in Africa.

He highlighted Türkiye’s position as a top tourism destination globally and its support for service exports, offering substantial discounts to encourage exports.

Simsek also mentioned the growing investment flows to Türkiye, expecting further acceleration after the upcoming local elections.

Türkiye also aims to increase its trade volume with Saudi Arabia to $30 billion in the medium term, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz affirmed at the one-day forum.

Yilmaz said the trade volume between the countries reached $6.8 billion in 2023, while Saudi firms have made an investment of $2 billion in Türkiye so far.

“Türkiye provides opportunities for investors in technology, defense, renewable energy, petrochemicals, finance, tourism and housing as part of international investments,” he said.

About his meeting with Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb, Yilmaz said: “While we expressed our satisfaction that the number of tourists coming to Türkiye from Saudi Arabia increased by 70% in 2023, reaching approximately 830,000, we evaluated the importance of the number of our citizens visiting Saudi Arabia from Türkiye increasing more than 3.5 times and reaching 670,000 in 2023.”