Riyadh, SPA:
His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Defense, who is also Chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, inaugurated here today "National Industry Development and Logistics Program" which aims to transform the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into a leading industrial power and global logistics platform.

For its positive impact on the Saudi economy, the National Industry Development and Logistics Program is one of the important and biggest 13 programs in the Kingdom Vision 2030. This program consolidates integration in the sectors of industry, mining, energy, and logistics.

The national program seeks to develop qualitative industries, increase non-oil exports, reduce imports, raise contribution of the target sectors to the Kingdom's gross domestic product (GDP) and attract foreign investments.

In a statement to Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Eng. Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources said "Upon directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, to develop the sectors of industry, mining, logistics and energy, we have worked over the past period to develop plans, prepare initiatives, attract investors, and transfer initiatives and ideas into sustainable development projects. We prepared and launched incentives and potentials to support and encourage the private sector which is a strategic development partner in this program."

"By 2030, the program aims to increase the contribution of the four sectors; industry, mining, logistics and energy in the GDP into SR 1.2 trillion. The program seeks to stimulate investments worth more than SR 1.7 trillion, raise non-oil exports to more than SR 1 trillion, and develop the labor market through creating 1.6 million new jobs," Eng. Al-Falih said.

With regard to the launching ceremony and forum, Al-Falih affirmed that the forum includes detailed presentations on the program and its key sectors, initiatives and investment opportunities, adding "we offer for our partners, the private sector, 65 unique investment opportunities with attractive returns of about SR 80 billion in all four sectors. We prepare 20 rooms, called "Rooms of Deals", to hold direct meetings among the relevant bodies and the private sector's institutions."

Minister Al-Falih highlighted the exerted efforts to complete the organizational and institutional infrastructure of the program.

During the ceremony, 37 agreements and memorandums of understanding were signed, in addition to another 29 agreements and memorandums of understanding, which were declared and to be signed, later on, between the government agencies and private sector institutions.

The total value of these agreements and memorandums of understanding is estimated at about SR205 billion.

On the other hand, more than 25 agreements and memorandums of understanding have been signed on the sidelines of the "Future Investment Initiative 2018" forum, with a total value of about SR210 billion, including SR165 billion is a part of the National Industry Development and Logistics Program.

The ceremony was attended by Prince Faisal bin Bander bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Riyadh Region, and a number of princes, ministers and senior officials in addition to businessmen and investors from a number of countries.