The Saudi Industries Exhibition organized by the Saudi Export Development Authority was launched last Thursday, October 5, 2017 accompanying the Saudi-Russian Investment Forum in Moscow organized by the General Authority for Investment in cooperation with the Council of Saudi Chambers and the Saudi-Russian Joint Council. The 1-day forum was held under the theme "Investment Towards Building a Strong Partnership".
The visit of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud witnessed several joint economic activities and discussed the means towards boosting the economic relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia to increase the volume of trade exchange between the two countries, a move that will positively affect the local Saudi economy.
Twelve Saudi companies participated and presented their national products in the exhibition, which represents a unique opportunity to showcase the latest products to interested investors from the Russian side. Saudi Exports was keen to diversify the types of participations and include major industries with export potentials to Russia, including construction, electronics, textiles, metals, petrochemicals, energy, plastics and electricity.
For his part, Secretary-General of the Saudi Export Development Authority, Saleh Al-Solami said that Saudi Arabia is a trading partner to Russia with a total trade exchange volume of nearly SAR 2 billion in 2016, noting that chemicals and polymers accounted for the largest share of Saudi exports to Russia, followed by construction and textiles. Al-Solami also pointed out the future export opportunities available in several industrial sectors with heavy machinery and electronics at the top followed by food products, building materials, chemicals and polymers.
He also stressed that "Saudi Exports" employ all its capabilities towards advocating the export ecosystem efficiency and international markets access in cooperation with the relevant authorities in both sectors. Al-Solami clarified that one of the main roles of the Authority is to serve the Saudi export sector by developing new policies and procedures or improving existing ones to boost exports, as well as encouraging exporters by monitoring the local and international challenges facing them and finding effective solutions to address them, thus enhancing the national product's access to foreign markets and enabling it to compete.