Kings of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Presidents have kept showing keenness to meet and to preserve distinct relations, during the past eight decades, a fact that assisted the development of the two friendly states, which the late Founder King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud and the U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. The historical relation began in 1933, when the King awarded the concessions of oil exploration to the U.S. firm of Standard Oil of California. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud's recent visit to the United States has given a strong momentum and great impetus to the events which coincided with the visit to strengthen the bonds of friendship and cordiality between the two peoples. The gracing by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques of the Saudi-US Investment Forum held by the Saudi-US Business Council, the Council of Saudi Chambers, and the General Authority for Investment has given a group of powerful messages to the US business community including the determination of the kingdom to grant significant investment opportunities for US companies, facilitate their work and strengthen the partnership between the two countries in various areas of business through this major economic event. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud's words, during the ceremony, stressed the depth of relations between the two countries and their evolution over 70 years as he said, 'Our visit today to comes to discuss and develop relations between the two countries in all fields and to discuss our issues. We are glad for what we saw of consensus about the work on the transfer of our strategic relationship to higher levels.' The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques emphasized the Kingdom's keenness to develop and enhance a comprehensive framework, to enhance the strategic partnership between USA and KSA in various fields for decades, taking into account the fact that the United States is the largest trading partner of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and that the Americans investors are the largest investors in the Kingdom. These strong words of King Salman bin Abdulaziz showed to Americans investors and businessmen, who were attending the forum that there is a new thought and promising era in the relations between the two countries. This was very clear as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saudi speech, delivered at the forum, particularly stressed opening of the Saudi market up to foreign investors. Saudi-U.S. Business Forum, coincided with the visit of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, have seen greet interest, intensive participation and effective presence by the U.S. businessmen, as the visit, directly, bolstered the participation, formally as well as informally, thus greatly helped in realizing the goals of the forum. Then, a panel discussion with the participation of a number of ministers began on attraction of investment. Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf in his speech during the panel discussion highlighted the Kingdom's financial consistent policy. For his part, the Minister of Health, the Chairman of Saudi Aramco, Khalid Al-Falih, spoke about the advantages of investing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. After that, the Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah talked about the development of trade between the kingdom and the US. Governor General Authority for Investment Engineer Abdullatif Al-Othman that investment in the field of innovations was the subject interest by Saudi and the American investors. The forum paid off early as before the end of its meetings, 18 industrial agreement between Saudi and US companies were signed. Giving effect to the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the General Authority for Investment called on major international manufacturers to submit their offers to invest in the Kingdom. For its part, the Saudi Arabain General Investment Authority (SAGIA) explained during the forum, the faciliities awarded for investment applications, in the Kingdom, in order to widen production basis through encouraging small and medium size enterprises, especially those interested in knowldege transfer and indigenization, in the Kingodm.
