Arab News, Saturday, Oct 16, 2021 | Rabi Al-Awwal 10, 1443
Saudi non-oil exports surge to record $33.4bn in H1 2021
Saudi Arabia:
Saudi non-oil exports jumped
37 percent to a record SR125.3 billion ($33.4 billion) in the first half of
2021, SPA reported.
Non-oil exports were SR91.7 billion in the first
half of 2020.
They increase by 8 percent in quantity, equivalent
to 34.7 million tons, suggesting a rebound in prices as volumes returned to
normal.
Global trade collapsed last year as the COVID-19
pandemic forced much of the world into lockdown. However, trade has rebounded
strongly this year and last week the WTO upgraded its forecast for global
merchandise trade volume growth to 10.8 percent in 2021 and 4.7 percent in 2022.
Saudi Arabia exported to 170 countries in the
first half, led by SR17.0 billion of goods to the UAE, followed by SR16.8
billion to China, and SR7.1 billion to India.
The petrochemical sector was the biggest source of
exports with a value of SR73.6 billion in the period, up from SR51.2 billion
during the same period last year, representing growth of 44 percent.
The H1 report follows data from the General
Authority for Statistics that showed July’s non-oil exports increased 17.9
percent year on year to SR20.8 billion.
The total value of exports amounted to SR91.8
billion in July 2021, up from 51.1 billion riyals in July 2020, led by a 112.1
percent increase in oil exports.
However, oil exports continued to dominate Saudi
trade with crude’s share increasing from 65.5 percent in July 2020 to 77.4
percent in July 2021.
Saudi Arabia is pushing to increase non-oil
exports as it seeks to ween its economy off dependency on oil sales with a goal
of raising the percentage of non-oil exports to 50 percent by 2030 and foreign
direct investment from 3.8 percent to an international average of 5.7 percent.
The Kingdom is in negotiations with 11 countries
on possible free-trade agreement, including China, India, Pakistan, Australia,
New Zealand, Britain, Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the
US.
The Kingdom aims to export services including
transport, distribution, professional and financial services, communication
services, postal services as well as express mail, media, hotel, construction
and contracting, education and training, travel and tourism, environmental, and
entertainment.
In August, the Saudi Export Development Authority
said more than 900 Saudi companies with over 2,000 locally manufactured products
had registered with the Kingdom’s “Made in Saudi” program, an initiative to
boost the competitiveness of Saudi products at home and abroad.
The program gives top priority to 16 different
economic sectors including chemicals and polymers, building materials,
electronics, and packaging.
Additionally, the Saudi Exports Development
Authority said in August it will identify over 120 international tendering
opportunities in a number of target countries, mainly covering construction and
industrial supplies and infrastructure projects.
In the same month, The Saudi Export-Import Bank
signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federation of Saudi Chambers to
provide importers and exporters loans and other financial services.