With $400 million.. value of the Cooperation between Saudi Ariba and Turkey

More than 400 senior businessmen and officials attended a special meeting of the Saudi-Turkish Business Forum in Jeddah aimed at strengthening economic relations between the two countries.

Investment opportunities

Amid discussions about more investment opportunities, a number of agreements were signed covering construction, real estate and tourism, as well as mining, food, agriculture and the financial services sector.

Real estate agreements

The meeting came just days after a similar event was held in the Turkish capital, Ankara, where real estate agreements worth more than 2.3 billion Saudi riyals ($610 million) were reached.

Saudi economic relations

After the last meeting, which took place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Saudi Arabia's second-largest city, Tuba Turkli, a Jeddah-based investor and international business consultant, told me that Saudi-Turkish economic relations are expected to grow significantly in the near future.

"There were agreements in construction between the two sides worth about $400 million and it is likely that they will reach $3 to $4 billion in the next six months," she said.

Addressing the forum, Kunit Sarışemen, country advisor at the Turkish Presidency's Investment Office highlighted the growth of the Turkish economy in a bid to encourage more trade with the kingdom.

Other participants attending the event included Asaad Al-Jami, Managing Director of the Global Supply Chain Resilience Initiative at the Saudi Ministry of Investment, who gave details on Saudi Vision 2030 and the mega projects being developed in the kingdom.

The real estate sectors

Tariq Al-Zeer, Director General of the Real Estate Sector Operations Department at the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing, used a title to highlight investment opportunities in the Saudi housing sector.

There are currently 1,140 Saudi companies operating in Turkey, and 395 Turkish companies investing in the kingdom.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said before his visit to the region that Turkey wants to strengthen its relations with the countries of the Middle East.

280 companies participating in the event

"We would like to strengthen all kinds of relations between us by traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE," Erdogan told reporters after returning from the two-day NATO summit in Lithuania.

Last December, the Saudi-Turkish Business Forum was held in the Turkish city of Istanbul, in the presence of Saudi Investment Minister Khaled Al-Falih and Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance Nouruddin Al-Nabati, with the participation of more than 280 companies from the two countries.