Delegates at a Miami conference urged to continue investing in the region
\n Saudi Arabia
\nGulf officials had a clear line for the US business community gathered in Miami this week at a Saudi Arabia-backed investment conference: stay calm and keep investing in the region.
\nThe cautious pitch, delivered four weeks into a regional war sparked by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, marked a sharp contrast to a year ago when American investors were promised a new dawn of co-operation between the US and the oil-rich Gulf.
\nYasir al-Rumayyan, head of Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund \u2014 one of the world\u2019s most powerful sovereign wealth funds and an investor in US companies such as Uber and Blackstone \u2014 barely mentioned the war when he opened the conference on Thursday.
\n\u201cThe Saudi microeconomic and physical position remains strong, stable and resilient, and the PIF portfolio is well diversified and structurally resilient,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are a long-term patient investor. We measure our returns not in quarters, but in decades and PIF remains committed to its investments around the world.\u201d
\nGlobal investors whose travel to the region has been disrupted by the conflict said they appreciated the effort made by officials from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to reassure them about the future.
\nBut behind the scenes of the event, entitled Future Investment Initiative Priority Miami, the mood was noticeably different.
\nPeople who met privately with Gulf officials said the tone was far more worrying. Some warned that if the war dragged on beyond April it could have a greater impact on the kingdom\u2019s economy and its ability to continue investing abroad at the same pace.
\nMohammed al-Jadaan, Saudi Arabia\u2019s finance minister, acknowledged the conflict needed to be resolved quickly.
\n\u201cIt is an impact that is more severe than even we have seen post-Covid\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009If this continues I think we will see an even more severe impact,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously oil has taken the centre stage in terms of media coverage but it is not just oil that has been significantly impacted. It is refined products, its fertilisers, it is in aluminum and feeds and petrochemicals,\u201d Jadaan said, referring to the near stoppage of traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Delegates at a Miami conference urged to continue investing in the region Saudi Arabia Gulf officials had a clear line for the US business community gathered in Miami this week at a Saudi Arabia-backed investment conference: stay calm and keep investing in the region. The cautious pitch, delivered four weeks into a regional war sparked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n