Belt and Road Initiative integrates with Saudi Vision 2030

Integration of the Saudi Vision 2030 with China’s Belt and Road Initiative is expected to boost Saudi Arabia’s economic growth, cnr.cn reports.

Oil contributes 50 percent of Saudi Arabia’s GDP, 70 percent of its financial revenues and 90 percent of the foreign trade income.

However, the continuous decline of oil prices directly raises the Saudi Arabian government’s deficit.

China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trade partner and largest oil importer. Saudi Arabia attaches great importance to aligning its development plan with the Belt and Road Initiative to attract more Chinese capital and technologies to the country.

Saudi Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser said this is of great importance for realizing Saudi Vision 2030.

The initiative is also important to many regions in Saudi Arabia, where there are great needs for infrastructure construction, and the initiative can also boost the country’s foreign trade, Nasser said.

In aligning their development plans, Chinese companies can make investment in Saudi Arabia to build factories with advanced technologies, and Saudi Arabia also hopes to introduce its advanced petrochemical technology into the huge Chinese market.

Lu Dong, president of Sinopec Engineering (Group) Co., Ltd., said, “As the oil price is low at present, Saudi Arabia hopes to further develop its refinery industry and export more refined products. We have great advantages in this aspect. And thanks to our government’s financing support for the Belt and Road Initiative, we are capable of carrying out cooperation with our Saudi Arabian counterparts with a whole set of solutions.” 

On March 13, Sinopec signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) to explore opportunities for launching joint petrochemical projects in both countries.

Lu said Sinopec’s overseas business has grown fourfold over the past four years, because of projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

In 2012, only 12 to 15 percent of its business came from overseas; the proportion was raised to 40 percent by the end of 2016.

“We serve the initiative, and we also benefit from it,” Lu added.