Staff Writer

Saudi Arabia needs to invest nearly 5 billion Saudi riyals ($1.33 billion) in local supply chain projects to support its burgeoning car industry, a senior official at the state-owned Public Investment Fund (PIF) has said.

The funds are essential to achieve the car industry strategy as the Gulf kingdom targets the production of at least 500,000 vehicles in 2035 while its car imports exceed 800,000, said Khalid Al-Jihrish, head of PIF’s sector development.

“This means there is a car market with a value of more than SAR40 billion ($10.6 billion) annually in addition to the services sector which includes spare parts and maintenance,” he told the Saudi daily Aleqtisadia on Thursday.

“There is a need to invest nearly SAR5 billion in the car supply chain as part of a plan to nationalise this industry.”

Jihrish said investment plans by PIF, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, focus on three main strategies, including car manufacturing, supply chain and investment in the electric vehicle infrastructure.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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