Schools and desalination plants top deals in Saudi Arabia’s vast privatisation shift
Riyadh launches its public-private partnerships drive to transfer a quarter of its economy to private hands
Dubai — School buildings and desalination facilities producing fresh water will feature in some of the first deals as Saudi Arabia transfers a quarter of its economy to private hands, an official overseeing the process said on Wednesday. Turki A Al Hokail, chief executive of the National Centre for Privatisation and Public-Private Partnerships, was speaking as Riyadh formally launched a vast privatisation programme focusing on 10 sectors of the economy. Riyadh is working on new rules to attract foreign as well as local capital to the scheme and will address potential investors’ concern about their level of control over projects, including their ability to hire and fire workers, Hokail said. "This is a big change in the economy. The government is moving from operating projects to monitoring and regulating them," he said in a telephone interview. "Operations will be the job of the private sector." Riyadh announced on Tuesday that it aimed to generate 35-billion to 40-billion riyals ($...
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