Skip to main content

Saudi Arabia's example of investing oil wealth at home

Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Zamil, Chairman of Saudia Arabia's multi-industry conglomerate Zamil Group and CEO of National Chemical Carriers Ltd., said here Thursday that Gulf Arab states shall follow Saudi Arabia's example of investing oil wealth at home rather than buying assets abroad.

Speaking at the three-day annual Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), Al-Zamil said that Saudi-Arabia's conservative investment policy has saved the kingdom from the full impact of financial crisis. He urged all members of the Gulf Co- operation Council (GCC), to build up their own industries and to export "petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, rather than barrels of oil," said Al-Zamil.

The industry tycoon added that oil was sold Thursday in Europe at world market prices of 110 U.S. dollars per barrel although it is only stored there, "but the GCC states have much higher costs and less benefits from exporting pure barrels."

Unlike sovereign wealth funds in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi or Dubai, Saudi Arabia hosts the world's largest petrochemical producer, Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC). According to research data compiled by the GPCA, petrochemicals account for 72 percent of Saudi Arabia's non-oil exports, compared to 61 percent in Kuwait and 9 percent in the UAE.

Investing most of oil export revenues abroad and hoarding money on bank accounts was the wrong way for the GCC, said Al-Zamil. " Look at Libya, it lost billions by investing abroad. Look at the Kuwaiti banks or Dubai, both of which were hit badly by the global financial crisis," he said, adding that public funding by the Saudi government paid off in 97 percent of all projects, while " global shopping tours" were much more risky.

In fact, Kuwait's largest investment bank Global Investment House, which avoided a near-bankruptcy in 2008 after suffering losses in foreign exchange trading, has still not overcome the crisis as the lender agreed a week ago with creditors to restructure 1.7 billion dollars of debt. State-funds of the emirate of Dubai and Abu Dhabi divested from a number of engagements abroad.The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Aabar Investments sold its remaining 3 percent stake in Germany's Daimler AG in October.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Buried Treasures in Bohol Philippines

Written by Joe Espiritu       Four persons died in a treasure hunting accident last week. They died for nothing. Many had lost their shirts in the venture, the propensity for Filipinos to get rich quick attribute to the treasure hunting mania. The sad part is that only the ignorant venture on the search, those in the know, being sure that nothing will come out of the effort would not think of investing money, time and effort – this time lives – in a fruitless enterprise.        There had been stories of people getting rich uncovering treasure troves in unlikely places. Most stories are false. Ancient graves of archeological and anthropological value had been desecrated by treasure hunters. They had found nothing. Those people may have struck it rich but not from some hidden riches. Contrary to what other people say, there are no buried treasures in Bohol . If there had been, they were unearthed years ago.         If one ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Obama is the richest man in the world

I hold you to the words you are writing. You blamed Bush for the balanced budget disappearing. I don't know if you are capable of holding a memory that happen yesterday. You have forgotten that Bush was a war President, two wars in his term; Katrina & Rita, three major hurricanes that destroyed Florida and the gulf coast, Annual fires ravaging California that dependent on Bush to declare those as disaster areas too. Then the Democrats protest any move by the Republican to reform the Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac because of policy created by Democrats on home buyers that had no income. Greenlining was opposed by Democrats. Bush fought the good wars, maintained the economy until Obama and his handlers created a hoax about worst economy, and unemployment in 5%. People like you believed his lies, about high debts in $500 billion and worst unemployment and depression since 1932!   In less than a year Obama committed $3 trillion debts, before his term is over projected to $27 trillion, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Maintain Good Posture

SOME people walk gracefully while others slump.      You know something is wrong.When you  see a frumpy figure gazing  back at you in the mirror.     Good posture can change all   that. A woman striding confidently into a room with her shoulders  straight  and head held high has the ability to break hearts. A man standing straight-backed, with just the right tilt to his square chin, will stand out from the rest of the slumped party-goers.     Good posture is easy to attain.   The steps to proper posture are simple, and they begin with the stomach. The belly button should be pulled back into the spine,  sucked up into the lungs. The ribs, in turn, should be held lightly under a buoyant chest and shoulders that are back and relaxed. The collarbones should be down, while the chin is slightly lifted, creating long, swan-like neck.     The  feeling is of being pulled upward from a string attached to the top of your head, with the entire spine stretched and extended. And on top of this b...
Post a Comment
Read more