Riyadh, Saudi Arabia–Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has launched a program that will leverage its spending to boost the development of competitive and innovative sectors and industries in Saudi Arabia.
The Local Content Growth Program, which was announced at the Sixth Edition of Future Investment Initiative, is primarily aimed at achieving the Fund’s goal of increasing to 60 percent its contribution and the contribution of its affiliates towards the Saudi economy by 2025.
The Program also includes a Local Content Policy, in which PIF’s portfolio companies will encourage and support local products and services from project design stage to implementation, with priority given to private sector service providers and suppliers based on the size of their contribution to local content.
The Fund said that as the progress of the projects will be reported on a regular basis, this will support the competitiveness of local industries, driving innovation and confidence in local materials and designs.
Jerry Todd, Head of the National Development Division at PIF, said, “Launching the PIF Local Content Growth Program strengthens PIF’s position as a key enabler of a thriving private sector and a more resilient domestic economy in Saudi Arabia. This move will help build local capabilities, create opportunities for private sector players across the value chain, and build on Saudi Arabia’s position at the regional and global level in line with Vision 2030.”
In 2021, PIF’s portfolio companies awarded SAR140 billion worth of contracts to local private sector companies, nearly 60 percent of which went to the construction materials and services, information technology and telecommunications, and financial services sectors.