¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ

JEDDAH: More than 400 business leaders and officials attended a special meeting of the Saudi-Turkish Business Forum in Jeddah in a further boost to economic ties between the two countries.

Amid discussions around further investment opportunities, a number of agreements were signed covering manufacturing, tourism, mining, food and agriculture, as well as defense and military industries. 

Moreover, some nine agreements were signed on energy, education, digital technology, media, construction, health and real estate.  

The forum was attended by the Saudi Minister of Investment, Khalid bin Abdul Aziz Al-Falih, and the Turkish Minister of Trade, Omar Polat, with the participation of representatives from companies of both sides.  

In his speech, Al-Falih said that the National Investment Strategy is one of the main enablers to achieve the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030 to enhance the future of investment in the Kingdom.  

This includes the development of investment opportunities, improving the business environment, and enhancing the Kingdom's competitive position on the global investment map.  

The meeting came just days after a similar event was held in the Turkish capital Ankara, which saw real estate agreements worth more than SR2.3 billion ($610 million) reached.

After the latest meeting, held in the Ritz Carlton hotel in ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ’s second-largest city, Tuba Terekli, a Jeddah-based investor and international business consultant, told Arab News that Saudi-Turkish economic ties are expected to grow significantly in the near future. 

"There were agreements in construction between the two sides of nearly $400 million and that would probably reach $3-$4 billion in the upcoming six months," she said. 

Addressing the forum, Cuneyt Saricimen, country advisor at the Investment Office of the Turkish Presidency, shed light on the growth of the Turkish economy in a bid to encourage more trade with the Kingdom.

Others attending the event included Asaad Al-Jomoai, managing director of the Global Supply Chain Resilience Initiative at the Saudi Ministry of Investment, who gave details on the Saudi Vision 2030 and the giga-projects being developed in the Kingdom.  

Tariq Al-Zeer, general manager of the administration of real estate sector operations at the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs, and Housing, used an address to highlight the investment opportunities in the Saudi housing sector. 

There are currently 1,140 Saudi companies operating in Turkiye, and 395 Turkish companies investing in the Kingdom.

Turkiye wants to strengthen its relationships with countries in the Middle East, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said ahead of his visit to the region, reported Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu,

"We would like to further strengthen all kinds of relations between us by traveling to ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ, Qatar and the UAE," Erdogan had told reporters after returning from a two-day NATO Summit in Lithuania. 

In December 2022, the Saudi-Turkish Business Forum was held in Istanbul, Turkiye, in the presence of the Kingdom’s Investment Minister Al-Falih, the Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance Nureddin Nebati, and with the participation of more than 280 companies from the two countries.