Investments in Saudi Arabia’s industrial sector recorded quarterly growth of 1.5 percent, with a total value of almost SAR1.5 trillion by the end of the third quarter of 2023. That is compared to approximately SAR1.4 trillion by the end of the second quarter of 2023. Saudi Arabia’s industrial investments recorded an annual growth rate of 9.3 percent compared to investments of SAR1.3 trillion during the same period last year.
Investment division
The value of industrial investments in large-scale facilities amounted to around SAR975 billion, constituting 65.1 percent of the total investments in Saudi Arabia’s industrial sector. Meanwhile, investments in medium-scale facilities amounted to around SAR390 billion, or 26 percent of the total. Whereas, investments in small-scale facilities amounted to about SAR132 billion, or 8.9 percent of the total.
National and joint investments
National investments topped the list of industrial investors by the end of the third quarter of 2023. The total value of industrial investments recorded was SAR938 billion, constituting 62.6 percent of the total investment volume. This was accomplished through 9,324 existing factories, representing 82.7 percent of the total number of factories.
This falls in line with Saudi Arabia’s National Investment Strategy (NIS) which plays a pivotal role in the kingdom’s economic diversification efforts.
Meanwhile, joint investments came in second with a value of almost SAR486 billion, constituting 32.5 percent of the total investments. Investments were made in 941 existing factories, representing 8.3 percent of the total number of factories.
Following that, foreign investments ranked third with a value of SAR73 billion, representing 4.9 percent of the total industrial investments. About 1,008 existing factories, representing 8.9 percent of the total, benefited from the investment.
Number of factories
The total number of existing factories increased by 2.6 percent quarterly and 5.1 percent annually, reaching 11,273 factories. Meanwhile, the total number of employees reached 757,429 workers. Employee numbers grew 2.9 percent quarterly and 11.6 percent annually.
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Eastern region
Saudi Arabia’s eastern region took 41.2 percent or about SAR617 billion of the total volume of industrial investments.
As for the Riyadh region, it recorded the largest number of existing factories at 4,389. This represents 38.9 percent of the total number of factories in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Riyadh has the largest workforce of 282,702 employees, representing 37.3 percent of the total number of employees in the sector.
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