Saudi Arabia

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector has benefitted from rising smartphone sales and expanding broadband reach, but further growth is contingent on infrastructure, particularly the expansion of the nation’s broadband capability and its integration with international networks.

Saudi Arabia is accelerating efforts to take its industrialisation process to the next level, moving from the processing of feedstocks – particularly hydrocarbons – towards utilising the resulting petrochemical materials for the manufacture of finished products. Rising demand on both the national power grid and on raw materials, however, could have an impact on the rate at which new developments are realised.

The Kingdom is launching a massive health care sector spending programme, a priority in a country where population growth, increasing numbers of religious tourists and a rise in lifestyle-associated illnesses are putting pressure on existing medical infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia’s economy, already robust after posting growth of 6.8% last year, seems set for a period of sustained expansion, with state-backed investments and higher-than-projected hydrocarbons earnings contributing to the Kingdom’s strong performance.

The Kingdom’s stock exchange made a promising start to 2012, raising further the anticipation that international investors might soon have direct entry to this $337bn market.

Should the Gulf of Hormuz be closed to shipping, Saudi Arabia has proposed that the Kingdom’s Red Sea ports could be utilised for freight trans-shipment. The recent rise in tension in the Gulf region is a result of Iran making a series of thinly veiled threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation to a US-led tightening of sanctions against Tehran, including halting the country’s oil exports.