Arab News, Sunday, Aug 22, 2021 | Muharram 14, 1443
Over 900 local companies register with ‘Made in Saudi’ program
Saudi Arabia:
The Saudi Export Development
Authority or Saudi Exports on Saturday said more than 900 Saudi companies with
over 2,000 locally manufactured products have registered with the Kingdom’s
“Made in Saudi” program since its launch, Argaam reported quoting a report
carried by Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper.
The “Made in Saudi” initiative aims to support
national products and increase their competitiveness both at home and abroad, as
well as raising awareness of, and confidence in, their general level of high
quality.
It is considered a fundamental driver to achieve
the economic goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 program to diversify the
nation’s income sources away from oil and oil-based products, and improve and
enhance the status of Saudi products.
The program gives top priority to 16 different
economic sectors including chemicals and polymers, building materials,
electronics, and packaging.
The authority said it seeks to increase the number
of members and registered products.
The program aims to create more than 1.3 million
job opportunities in the industrial and mining sector and raise the private
sector’s contribution from 40 percent to 65 percent of the gross domestic
product (GDP). In addition, it aims to raise the percentage of non-oil exports
to 50 percent and foreign direct investment from 3.8 percent to an international
average of 5.7 percent
Saudi Exports is also taking measures to promote
Saudi companies to take part in international projects by identifying over 120
international tendering opportunities in a number of target countries, mainly
covering construction and industrial supplies and infrastructure projects.
Saudi Exports launched the international tendering
service to open new opportunities for national companies to expand in
international markets and increase their competitiveness, by allowing them to
export services and products via international tenders in several targeted
sectors.
The international tendering service is an
important step by the authority to support exporters, increase their
competitiveness level, boost the export percentage of Saudi services, products,
and re-exportation, Saudi Exports Secretary-General, Faisal Al-Bedah said.
The service includes eight targeted sectors and 24
sub-branches, where Saudi Exports will provide periodic reports with data and
analyses for the most important projects in targeted countries.
In other efforts to increase non-oil exports, the
Saudi Export-Import Bank (EXIM) recently signed a memorandum of understanding
with the Federation of Saudi Chambers (FSC) to provide non-oil exporters SR9
billion ($2.3 billion).
The MoU signed with EXIM seeks to support efforts
in increasing non-oil exports and provide credit solutions to the business
community to improve the competitiveness of Saudi products.