Optimism grows over greater cooperation after Türkiye-Saudi Arabia thaw

The recent momentum of joint efforts is encouraging optimism for an increase in the trade volume and investments between Türkiye and Saudi Arabia, as they mend ties following years of tension.

A major joint business forum in Istanbul late last month reiterated what seems to be a strong will for rapid progress and highlighted investment opportunities in both countries.

It came at a time of a major rebound in bilateral trade volume between Türkiye and Saudi Arabia, which stood at $3.7 billion in 2021 before it surpassed this figure to reach around $3.8 billion in the first nine months of 2022.

Ankara and Riyadh have set a goal to boost this figure initially to $10 billion (TL 187.44 billion) and then to $30 billion by 2030.

The rebound comes as Türkiye and Saudi Arabia this year moved to mend ties following years of tension, which escalated significantly after the 2018 murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul Consulate.

Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati, who attended the forum and held talks with Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih, said they would continue to work and cooperate to ensure that businesspeople benefit from the investment opportunities provided by the two countries.

According to statements by officials of the two countries, the forum, a second edition of which is planned to be held in Riyadh in March, seeks for the Turkish private sector to play a major role in the megaprojects that Saudi Arabia will launch within the scope of its 2030 vision.

Promising integration, opportunities

“We are looking for partners in the Saudi markets. The opportunities are very large, and we need our Turkish brothers to put their hand in ours and help us and be with us and play a fundamental and important role,” said Amer al-Ajmi, a Saudi investor and businessperson who is also executive vice president of the international company Al-Fanar.

Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” features plans to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels by boosting tourism, real estate, trade and logistics sectors and building new cities and facilities, all of which require huge capital and cooperation to carry out.

“We are also present in the Turkish market and we are looking for opportunities in the field of renewable energy. We have invested in the Turkish markets for more than 10 years, and our company has achieved annual profits estimated at about $25 million,” al-Ajmi told Daily Sabah.

He praised the Turkish market, saying that it is “very large in terms of technical suppliers and contractors.”

“The Saudi-Turkish relationship is an eternal relationship that has existed since ancient times and is here to stay so that we can communicate, integrate and complement each other more, as our leaders said.”

Khaled Hussein al-Jahdali, a chairperson of Al-Haytham mining company, stressed the forum’s importance as he hailed the relations between the two nations.

“We discussed opportunities with Turkish businessmen and investors, whether inside Türkiye or inside Saudi Arabia, and we signed several agreements with the Turkish side, regarding mining and aviation, and the field is promising between the two countries, and the future is promising to achieve the vision of our Kingdom 2030,” al-Jahdali told Daily Sabah.

“Türkiye has a great history in the field of mining and there are many ores in it. Türkiye’s experience in these areas offers great benefits, and we hope that opportunities will be realized and integrated between the two parties,” he noted.

Saudi businessperson Ziyad al-Bassam, head of the Al-Bassam Group, said Saudi Arabia and Türkiye were the two largest economies in the region, stressing the fact that they are both members of the G-20.

Al-Bassam also noted what he said was a very large volume of integration between the two countries, especially with the presence of great investment opportunities within the scope of the kingdom’s Vision 2030.

“We sensed an urgent desire from Turkish businessmen and investors to participate in these opportunities. In return, Saudi businessmen were briefed on the existing opportunities in Türkiye in order to invest,” al-Bassam added.

Elaborating on the most prominent areas to invest in Türkiye, he stressed several, including industry, tourism and the health sector.

“In addition to that, the investor opts for the fields in which he has experience and conducts the necessary studies before investing,” al-Bassam said.

Saudi investor and businessperson Maret al-Dhafeeri said the forum was a good idea to increase investment and cooperation in the business sector between Saudi Arabia and Türkiye.

“If we look at each country separately, we see that it has aspirations that the other country can meet, and this contributes to accelerating cooperation between the two countries,” al-Dhafeeri said.

Al-Dhafeeri believes that: “In order for this to happen, practical plans must be drawn up after the forum, for future steps that must be worked on and activated, such as setting up committees in every field, for example, a committee for the petrochemical sector and a committee for the emerging energy sector, etc., and work items are distributed so that we can speed up the process.”

Contracting sector revival

The revival of Türkiye’s relations with Saudi Arabia, as well as other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), is said to have provided an additional impetus to several industries, spearheaded by the property sector, amid expectations of an increase in Gulf demand for real estate.

The recent improvement in relations opened the door for Turkish contractors to enter the “big market,” especially as Saudi Arabia aims to build projects worth $3.3 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the head of the Turkish Contractors Union (TMB), Erdal Eren.

Eren, in an interview with Anadolu Agency (AA), said the rapprochement with the Gulf countries contributed to the revival of the contracting sector through the opportunities it provided to engage in new projects, whether in these countries or in other Islamic countries.

He believes that the head of the Federation of Saudi Contractors, Zakaria al-Abdul Qader, assuming the presidency of the Federation of Contractors of Islamic Countries provides an opportunity for Turkish and Saudi contractors to enhance their cooperation and partnerships.

“Turkish contractors consider that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Riyadh and the subsequent visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to Ankara opened a new page in the relations of the two countries,” Eren said.

Erdoğan’s visit to Saudi Arabia in April marked the first high-level visit in years. His trip was followed by MBS’s trip to Türkiye in June.

The two leaders also met in November on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.