Asharqia Chamber: 200 billion riyals in trade balance surplus for Germany over the past five years
AlKhalidi: Calls for greater attraction of German investments and balance in trade
The Chamber hosts a German official to discuss the future of renewable energy in the Kingdom
A new report issued by Asharqia Chamber, represented in the Center for Information and Studies, in September 2018 shows a surplus in the trade balance between the Kingdom and the German Republic in favor of the latter. It is estimated at 200 billion riyals during the past five years, out of the total volume of trade exchange between the two countries by about 208 billion riyals.
The year 2017 alone saw a surplus in favor of Germany estimated at about 28 billion riyals of the total trade volume of about 31 billion riyals.
The report pointed out that the value of the Kingdom's exports to Germany were amounted to about 1.3 billion riyals in 2016 and it rose to about 1.5 billion riyals in 2017, 10.8% more than the previous year.
While the value of imports of the Kingdom from Germany in 2017 were amounted to 29.5 billion Saudi Riyals, compared to 34.3 billion riyals in 2016 and about 44.8 billion riyals in 2013.
The report showed the most important imports of the Kingdom from Germany during the year 2017 in five major commodities, mainly machinery and equipment, cars and accessories.
While the Kingdom's exports to Germany during the same year were limited to metal products, plastics, aluminum and chemical products.
On Monday, October 1, 2018, Asharqia Chamber and in cooperation with the Office of the German-Saudi Economic Affairs (AHK) held a workshop on "the future of renewable energy in the Kingdom and the latest German technologies that are used in production."
During the workshop, the Chairman of Asharqia Chamber, Abdul Hakim bin Hamad Al-Ammar Al-Khalidi, stated, "The Kingdom is associated with strong economical and commercial relations with Germany, which has made Germany one of the Kingdom's main trading partners." He referred to the memorandum of understanding for technical, industrial and economic cooperation between the two countries, which was released in January 1977.
However, the Kingdom's exports to Germany in 2017 do not exceed 0.1% of the total export value of the exporting countries to Germany.
Al-Khalidi said that the report showed a large surplus in the balance of trade for Germany, which requires us to work on two main topics.
The first is to intensify the work to increase the attraction of German investments to the Saudi interior in general and in the industries related to cars and accessories of spare parts and industries associated with electrical equipment and parts in particular. And the second is to work on increasing Saudi exports to Germany.
He pointed out that the German imports from the Kingdom do not go beyond the framework of mineral and chemical products, in light of the Kingdom's great capabilities in exporting many other products, mainly pharmaceuticals, which are now a true number in Saudi exports and at the same time come among the top five German imports from the world.
Al-Khalidi expressed his optimism about a positive step towards adjusting the balance of trade with Germany, especially with major changes on investment procedures, which greatly facilitate the entry of foreign direct capital into the country.
He stressed that the new investment climate gave unlimited stability to production facilities and manufacturing bases, and that there are investment opportunities in several industrial and commercial projects.
