Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia has been a long-standing target for French investors, making France the Kingdom’s third biggest investor with a foreign direct investment stock of $15 billion, said the French Embassy’s Head of the Economic Department, Philippe Gassmann.

A delegation from France that will visit Saudi Arabia ahead of the second Saudi-French Business Opportunities Forum on Monday will be the “most important” to have ever visited the Kingdom, he added.

He said the delegation, comprising over 300 participants, would aim to foster long-term relationships with their Saudi counterparts at the two-day event and look for opportunities to set up investments in the Kingdom and vice versa.

Gassmann said, “French blue chip companies already know Saudi Arabia very well thanks to their long-lasting presence in the Kingdom. Nevertheless, many SMEs will discover the country for the first time. We believe that Saudi Arabia is a tremendous market where you can foster long-term relationships. We also count on the warm welcome of Saudis to help us convince our visiting companies that the Kingdom offers not only profits but a friendly environment to do business.”

Gassmann said, “In France, Saudi investments are focused on luxury hotels, real estate and agriculture. We hope to welcome more Saudi investments in every layer of our economy and balance them with our investments in the Kingdom. Indeed, the stock of Saudi foreign direct investments in France is still quite low, under $1 billion, and this figure could be raised, especially in the ‘French Tech’, our fruitful cluster of start-ups.”

He believed there were many promising fields of investment in Saudi Arabia such as healthcare, agriculture and ICT, and it was hoped the forum would act as a “springboard” to develop partnerships in those fields.