The Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) has since its inception in 1974 granted a total of SR69.168 billion in 2,694 loans to set up 1,779 industrial projects across the Kingdom. A recent SIDF annual report containing figures up to the end of 2009 said that the projects were either completed or under way and that their total cost amounted to SR272.228 billion, meaning that the SIDF was responsible for just over one quarter of their funding. “The fund has played a major role in implementing the guarantee program for financing small - and medium-sized businesses managed by the fund in coordination with commercial banks involved in the program,” said Ibrahim Al-Assaf, Minister of Finance, in a preface to the report. “The total number of guarantees approved by the program since its launch and up to last year was 1,110, amounting to SR449 million, compared to SR1.07 billion provided by the banks.” The report said that 111 industrial loans were granted in 2009, four more than the previous year, involving SR5.186 billion. 76 of the loans went to new projects, and the remainder for expansions to already existing ones. The sums paid out by the SIDF rose by 7.6 percent in 2009, amounting to SR5.442 billion, a record sum for the fund. Loan repayments in 2009 totaled SR1.727 billion, almost exactly the same figure for 2008, which, the report said, “shows the strength of the industrial sector given the global financial crisis.”
