He drew the attention to the surge of the overall direct foreign investment assets in the Kingdom to five folds over nine years to reach about $200b in 2014, making the economy the world's fourth in terms of economic strength according to a WEF recent report. He expressed welcome of investments of leading Russian companies that are supposed to transfer technology, enhance innovation and provide training for Saudi nationals, particularly in less-developed regions where a package of incentives has been prepared to remove obstacles that might face investors, as is the case in any country of the world, noting that SAGIA has launched a new investment window for foreign companies from which licenses would come out in no more than three days. He said the government expenditure in the Kingdom has soared from $92b in 2005 to nearly $300b in 2014. A unified investment plan including all investment sectors in which the mechanisms and standards to lessen imports and enable such sectors to become more internationally competitive and a strong economic tributary is underway. He cited that the health plan by the Ministry of Health has drawn more than 40 promising investment opportunities worth $71b, and the transport sector has projected 36 promising investment opportunities worth $25b. He added that the size of foreign investments in the Kingdom amounted to $220b, a rate of between 10 to 15 billion US dollar annually. Despite that foreign investments were focusing on energy, petrochemicals, building and construction fields, we are planning to enter new investment ventures in the fields of health, transport, tourism, and information technology, Al-Othman said. He added that SAGIA has recently launched a comprehensive introductory website named "Invest in Saudi", including the unified investment plan, noting that the plan has voiced more than 100 investment opportunities in 18 sectors worth about $344b aiming to attract the purchasing power into projects worth more than $500b in the coming ten years. --More 15:01 LOCAL TIME 12:01 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w