RIYADH: Saudi Arabia plans to list agricultural firms on its stock market in a push to raise the financial efficiency of such firms as it looks to boost investment in the sector. In a joint workshop with a number of agricultural firms, the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture and the Saudi Stock Exchange discussed the plans to stimulate the listing of agricultural firms on the stock market, Saudi Press Agency reported. Held at the ministry"s headquarters in Riyadh, the joint workshop between the three parties discussed ways to boost the private sector participation in the Saudi financial market as part of the Vision 2030 initiatives, and the financial sector development program. The workshop also shed light on the role of the ministry in developing medium and large companies and stimulating them for public offerings and listing on the stock market. This comes in line with the ministry’s plans and strategy to open new markets that support building resilient food systems within the Kingdom. In addition to this, the workshop also discussed ways to attract private companies from diversified economic sectors, especially the environment, water, and agriculture, to increase their contribution to the gross domestic product. The workshop highlighted the advantages of listing companies on the stock market — including reliability and continuity — as well as the goals that can be achieved through the listing of agricultural companies considering that the Saudi stock market is one of the largest financial markets in the Middle East and North Africa and the ninth in the world. Last September, Saudi Arabia, in coordination with its regional partners, launched a food security action plan with an initial funding of $10 billion to tackle the global food supply crisis, the Kingdom’s Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture said. Speaking at a meeting of G20 agriculture ministers in Indonesia, Abdulrahman Al-Fadhli said the Kingdom will continue its role in helping stabilize the global food production supply chain. On the domestic front, he added, the Kingdom has also succeeded in reducing the use of water for agricultural purposes by more than 40 percent, the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying. Al-Fadhli also highlighted the Kingdom’s achievement in the agricultural sector, which according to him, grew by more than 7.8 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year.