Britain says it will help Saudi Arabia to reform economy

RIYADH // Britain on Wednesday said it would help Saudi Arabia to diversify its oil-dependent economy as British prime minister Theresa May visited the kingdom.

Mrs May and King Salman held talks focused on “bilateral relations and cooperation” as well as “regional and international developments”, the official news agency SPA said.

Mrs May’s office said she would discuss with the monarch “tax and privatisation standards to help Saudi Arabia diversify its economy and become less reliant on oil”.

Saudi Arabia faces a significant budget deficit with billions of dollars in debts to private firms, largely in the construction business, after a drop in global oil prices by about half since 2014.

Britain will also assist Riyadh in reforming its ministry of defence and reviewing defence capabilities.

The visit by the British prime minister to the oil-rich kingdom came as she seeks to secure investment and trade now that Britain has officially started a two-year countdown to leave the European Union.

As the kingdom weighs up which international market should list shares of oil giant Saudi Aramco in what many expect will be the largest public offering ever, Mrs May pitched the merits of the London Stock Exchange as a venue for the flotation.

Saudi Arabia plans to list less than 5 per cent of the world’s largest oil-producing company on the Saudi exchange and another international exchange, possibly by next year.

Mrs May laid out the advantages of doing business in the UK. during a private meeting with Saudi energy minister and Aramco chairman Khalid Al Falih.

She also met King Salman on the second day of her two-day visit and discussed the humanitarian crisis in neighbouring Yemen.

Back home, the prime minister has come under harsh criticism for her visit to the ultra-conservative kingdom.

She has faced calls to raise human rights issues with the kingdom’s leaders, primarily over Britain’s arms sales to a Saudi-led military coalition battling Iran-backed rebels in Yemen since March 2015. Human rights groups have called for an end to US and British arms sales to Riyadh over the coalition’s involvement in the war in Yemen, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank says Saudi Arabia has bought more than $5 billion (4.7 billion euros) worth of arms from the United States and Britain since its engagement in the Yemen war.

More than 7,700 people have been killed in Yemen since March 2015, the United Nations says, and seven million Yemenis face starvation this year.

As part of its economic diversification strategy, Saudi Arabia has announced plans to increase women’s participation in the workforce from 22 to 28 per cent by 2020.

On Tuesday, the UK prime minister met Sarah Al Suhaimi, the first woman to head the Saudi stock exchange and a Saudi investment bank, and Princess Reema bint Bandar, head of the women’s section at the general authority for sports.

* Agence France-Presse