DUBAI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia wants to bring in more Japanese companies as it looks to attract foreign investment to back its ambitious economic diversification plans, the governor of its sovereign wealth fund said on Monday.
Saudi Arabia is preparing to shift its nearly $925 billion Public Investment Fund away from the real estate projects that have dominated its development goals for the last decade, Reuters reported in October. A new strategy will narrow its focus to sectors including logistics, mineral exploitation, religious tourism and artificial intelligence.
"Japan, I think, at some stage, was one of the largest partners for Saudi Arabia, and we want to get that back by bringing in more and more Japanese companies to come and work with us," PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said.
"We have invested from 2017 to 2024 about $11.5 billion (in Japan), and we expect this number to go higher to about $27 billion by the end of 2030," he said.
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative Priority summit in Tokyo, he also said the PIF's new five-year strategy running to 2030 was recently approved by the board.
Reporting by Federico Maccioni; Editing by Joe Bavier
Source: Reuters