Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — “I want to congratulate Saudi Arabia and its people for this successful international conference which brings top investors, business leaders and public officials,” said Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) CEO Kirill Dmitriev, who met with Saudi Gazette on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative (FII).

“When Kingdom’s Vision was first announced, everyone was asking what is it about? How can the Kingdom diversify its economy? And now everyone is watching the development the Kingdom witnesses rapidly to move away from oil.

“We are big believers that oil still remains important and will remain important for both Saudi Arabia and Russia in the next years. However, the diversification plan made by the Kingdom is very promising. Adopting new technology is very key for both of us to ensure that Kingdom and Russia keep very sustainable economy model for the next 200 years,” he said.

The Saudi-Russian relations witnessed a great boost recently, especially, after the historic visit of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to Russia in early October, which included economic deals on top of its agenda.

Speaking on Public Investment Fund (PIF) new approach, which can be reached through partnerships Dmitriev said, “PIF started to build significant partnerships with bodies in concern to reach better outcomes. I believe that the new approach of PIF, which is to have partnerships, will be very successful. Investment is always risky; you do not know what will win or what will lose. So by

PIF having more partnerships that means PIF is going to be a little more conservative about expenditure. And invest maybe little more in the late stages of the companies’ development.”

On the developments happening in sovereign wealth fund, Dmitriev explained: “We are in a very turning point in Sovereign Wealth. In Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), we changed the traditional model. We focused on forming partnerships and stop funds to invest actively in ourselves, which means we will be having better capabilities to make decisions faster. The second point is that building partnerships among ourselves. Furthermore, we started to play more active role in transforming economy by investing in technology.

“The current status of PIF has dramatically enhanced over the past 3-4 years. Sovereign wealth fund now add more value to the economy because before the entity was only used for saving money but now it is about using this money more actively. More powerful and stronger role.”

He then stressed that the Kingdom’s economy has positive factors that many people do not know. He said: The majority of the population is below 35 years old, infinite number of investment opportunities exists and shine outside the oil and gas sector. They are logistics, agriculture, infrastructure, and industrial manufacturing, PIF in the Kingdom can invest in some of the investment projects, which can generate great revenues. “PIF investment in the Kingdom is following a powerful model in enhancing investment,” he added.

The visit by King Salman was historic in which it brought development plans and projects for both nations. “Before this historic visit, Russia was honored to receive the Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman two years ago in which he outlined the vision with President Vladimir Putin for cooperation in multiple areas. We had an oil stabilization deal, which helped to build mutual trust between the two countries and proved that we both can work successfully together.

“Russian companies are very interested in investing in Saudi Arabia, we are currently finalizing more than a billion project by a well-known Russian petrochemical company (SIBUR) to build a factory in the Kingdom. More projects are under way that can generate revenue and create jobs for both nations,” Dmitriev said, adding.

“We will also bring a delegation of more than 50 Russian CEOs from top Russian companies to see the other areas we can invest in. It is mutual investment from both countries.”

“The future will definitely bring more promising opportunities for both countries,” he said.