DAMMAM — Asharqia Chamber's Secretary-General Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al Wabel stressed the importance of the role of the US-Saudi Arabian Business Council in identifying business partnerships and investment opportunities for Saudi firms with their counterparts in the United States. Al Wabel said during a workshop, organized by Asharqia Chamber on Wednesday, in its headquarters in Dammam, titled (Exporting to the United States of America) that there are great opportunities for Saudi products in the US market, noting that the Kingdom's exports of diverse non-oil and stressing that the Kingdom is capable of producing high quality non-petroleum products that meet international quality standards. Al Wabel revealed that the United States is still the largest trading partner as well as the largest investor in the Kingdom for many years. He said, “Bilateral trade between the two countries reached $61.3 billion in 2011, which represents an increase of 42.5 percent compared to last year. The value of the Kingdom's imports to the United States reached $13.8 billion, while exports of Saudi Arabia to the United States rose to reach $47.5 billion.” Al Wabel said that there are 400 joint ventures currently in the Kingdom with an investment of about $44 billion. Asharqia Chamber and Dhahran International Exhibitions Company recently signed a cooperation agreement aimed to organize and hold Young Businessmen and Women Forum and Exhibition 2013 in the chamber's headquarters in Dammam. Under the agreement signed by the Al-Wabel and CEO of Dhahran Exhibitions Company Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Husseini, the two parties will work on organizing the exhibition, which will be held during the period Nov. 5-7, 2013 at the headquarters of Dhahran Exhibitions on Dammam – Khobar Road.
