RIYADH —
Hundreds of CEOs and finance moguls are expected in Riyadh from Tuesday for a
Davos-style investment conference that analysts say will highlight Saudi
Arabia’s geopolitical muscle despite strained ties with the US.
اضافة اعلان
The
Future Investment Initiative (FII) was launched in 2017 as an economic coming-out
party for the world’s largest crude exporter, which is trying to diversify away
from oil under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
This year’s FII,
often referred to as “Davos in the Desert”, comes after a months-long process
of re-engagement with the West by Prince Mohammed, who has received visits this
year from then-UK prime minister Boris Johnson, French President
Emmanuel Macron, and US President Joe Biden.
The meetings
underline the kingdom’s growing clout amid an energy crisis resulting from
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The same can be
said for the lineup at FII, which runs Tuesday to Thursday, of more than 6,000
delegates and 500 speakers, 200 more than the previous high.
“The combination
of the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, and oil price rises has given Saudi
Arabia a greater level of geopolitical and economic influence this year
relative to every previous FII bar the first one in 2017,” said Kristian
Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University.
No ‘agenda’
The FII Institute, which organizes the conference, has tried to
establish an identity that goes beyond being a pet project of Prince Mohammed.
That effort has
involved setting up an investment arm and holding events in London and New York
in addition to the flagship event in Riyadh.
At a press
conference previewing the upcoming gathering, FII Institute CEO Richard Attias
stressed that FII was not a conference about Saudi Arabia, but rather “an
international conference happening in Saudi Arabia, showing that Riyadh and the
kingdom is definitely becoming a global hub”.
Participants
include business leaders from Latin American countries that in past years have
had no representation, as well as “a huge delegation from China” with more than
80 Chinese CEOs, Attias said.
Attias, the
former executive producer of the World Economic Forum in Davos, told AFP in an
interview he did not believe delegates feared a reputational cost for
attending.
“I think we have
really established the fact that we are an independent body. We don’t have any
agenda. We are here to help,” he said.
“I am very happy
that many business leaders think like me. We are not ignoring the issues in the
world. No one is ignoring that,” said Attias.
“But it is not
by boycotting any platform that you will solve a problem in the world.”
US-Saudi spat
Despite Attias’s desire to keep politics out of the conference, global
turmoil may well intrude as Saudi Arabia navigates a sensitive spat with the US
over oil production cuts approved earlier this month by
OPEC+, the cartel that
Riyadh leads with Moscow.
The White House
has said the move amounted to “aligning with Russia” in the Ukraine war, a
claim Saudi officials have strenuously rejected, saying it was motivated by
economics, not politics.
FII has typically drawn US government officials, notably former treasury
secretary Steven Mnuchin in 2017 and, last year, Don Graves, deputy commerce
secretary under Biden.
This year,
however, US officials were not invited, something Attias said reflected a
broader push to keep the focus on business leaders rather than politicians.
He noted that up
to 400 American CEOs are expected to participate.
The US embassy
in Riyadh has not responded to requests for comment about American official
participation.
Ulrichsen, from
the Baker Institute, said he was not surprised the US private sector would be
well represented despite the ongoing bilateral tensions.
“I can imagine
CEOs will make the judgement that if Biden himself can go to Saudi Arabia after
the Khashoggi murder then so can they,” he said.
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