THE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the two GCC countries with prevailing investments in Germany with the latter currently topping these investments. This was revealed here during a meeting of Saudi and German trade officials. Peter Ramsauer, president of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ghorfa) and also the chairman of the committee on the Economic Affairs and Energy, believes that there is an investment potential particularly with the Saudi Vision 2030 being implemented. [caption id="attachment_91716" align="alignright" width="300"] The German delegation meeting Saudi businessmen at the JCCI. — Courtesy photos[/caption]The bilateral trade between Germany and Saudi Arabia, said Ramsauer, adds up to 10 billion euros. According to him 9 billion euros of the exchanged investments are exports from Germany to KSA. "That means that there is an enormous trade deficit and we should try to catch up to rebalance and enhance the delivery from Saudi Arabia to Germany." Adnan Mandoura, secretary-general of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), while answering a Saudi Gazette question about where businessmen are heading to and whether Asia is a more attractive destination for them than Europe, said though there have been number of various delegations visits from number of countries yet "Saudi businessmen are open to all potential investment opportunities from north to south and from east to west." The German delegations included representatives from 30 medium and small companies said Abdulaziz Al-Mikhlafi, secretary general of Ghorfa. He added that these companies operate in different fields including: medicine, technology, industry and consultations. He noted that they have spent two days in Riyadh and visited the King Abdullah Economic City, Jeddah municipality and the JCCI. He said "We want to seek more cooperation in regard with the national Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program, in which the private sector will play a major role in." He elaborated that the industrial sector is expected to play a major role and if diversified the value of developing this sector will enhance the economy. Arab investments are estimated at 100 billion euros it was revealed, and when asked about the nature of the Saudi investments, he said, "There are some family investments but due to the confidentiality of information it is not easy to get specific statistics."
