Saudi Arabia to kick off multibillion dollars transport projects in 2020

Saudi Arabia’s Transport Minister, Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, said that the kingdom plans to launch public-private partnership (PPP) transport projects worth billions of dollars in 2020, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The step comes along with the country’s strategy to diversify the economy and create jobs.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, targets reducing dependence on oil revenues through assigning the private sector to operate much of its transport infrastructure, including airports and seaports, with the government keeping a role as regulator.

"Saudi Arabia has an impressive transportation and logistics infrastructure, where about 400 billion riyals ($106.7 billion) have been invested in the last 10 years only. The plan is to continue investing while increasing the private sector’s participation," Al-Jasser added.

The new projects include the expansion of Riyadh's airport along with five other regional airports.

The ministry also plans to launch a railway project linking Dammam in the Eastern Province to the Red Sea city of Jeddah through the capital, Riyadh.

"The funding will come through the private sector, either through PPP or government-to-government...these are big projects worth tens of billions of riyals," Al-Jasser said.

It is worth mentioning that Riyadh plans to generate between SAR 35 billion and SAR 40 billion ($9.3 billion - $10.0 billion) of non-oil state revenues from its privatization program by 2020.

The Saudi government expect real economic growth of 2.3% in 2020, supported by non-oil sectors.