“The Kingdom’s own Vision 2030 also prioritizes connectivity and economic integration, which is at the heart of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ Forum. The development of transportation networks is vital for the development of any nation, and Saudi Arabia’s transportation infrastructure supports sectors like petroleum, petrochemicals, mining, industry and commerce. To benefit our infrastructure, the Kingdom is now arming itself with a number of performance enhancing systems like electronic systems, active customs procedures and advanced information systems.” The Minister went on to say that “the Saudi railway system is one of the world’s biggest infrastructure projects as it comprises railways extending to longer than 15,000 km nationwide. The Saudi investment in metro, railroads, and other support services aggregates to some $106 billion. Such investments are coupled with the expansion of airports and seaports to upgrade capacity for both passengers and commodities in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Madinah.” Further to the above, Al-Faleh highlighted that, “in a bid to enhance the integration of the country’s various regions and increase linkages with neighboring economies, the government has created special economic zones to leverage the competitive edge of Saudi Arabia’s different regions across a range of economic sectors, like the financial, logistical, services, tourism and industry. Such zones shall be governed by investment sustaining regulations. “ The Minister touched on the matter of integration in the power sector, and said, “Since 2011, there has been power interconnection between the GCC countries as this interconnection has become ready for further interconnection with countries in Asia, Europe and Africa”. Al-Falih was keen to point out that, “before the advent of 2020, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be interconnected to and trading electricity with Africa via Egypt, and has tentatively agreed with Turkey to conduct a detailed feasibility study of a project to link the two electrical networks, from which the Kingdom can supply European markets. Such power connectivity with other regions will leverage not only Saudi Arabia’s prominent position in electricity generation, but also the growing efficiency of the Kingdom’s power generation fleet, which will be expanded with the introduction of renewables that could rise to some 9.5 GW by 2023. Given that assumptioin, renewables will account for 10% of Saudi Arabia’s total energy mix. The Kingdom is now working on the privatization of power generation facilities, which falls in line with its commitment to have a closer partnership with the private sectors in order to realize a sustain economic growth in future. --More 19:44 LOCAL TIME 16:44 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w403757