The Diplomat
Spain’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, traveled to Saudi Arabia this week to seek business and exchange opportunities between the two countries and to attract investment and tourists to Spain.
The visit began on Tuesday with a meeting with Spanish companies installed in Saudi Arabia, which “have successfully carried out major projects in the field of infrastructure, water sanitation, aeronautics or renewable energy,” as reported by the Ministry on its Twitter account.
Yesterday, Maroto held a meeting with Saudi businessmen from the tourism sector, to whom he explained “the good epidemic situation of Spain, ready to receive tourists”, and who requested to improve connectivity. Later, she met with the Saudi Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Al-Khateeb. The meeting, as stated by the minister through the official Twitter account of the Ministry, allowed to put “in common visions on the future of the tourism sector and its international reactivation”. “Spain and Saudi Arabia share the need to transform the tourism sector to make it more resilient, digital and sustainable,” she said after the meeting.
Maroto was later received by the Saudi Minister of Commerce, Majid Abdullah Al Qasabi, with whom she agreed on “good trade relations and opportunities for bilateral collaboration, both in the Vision 2030 Strategy promoted by the Saudi Government and in the Plan España Puede of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez for economic recovery after the pandemic. Vision 2030 is an ambitious investment program to diversify the Saudi economy and make it less dependent on oil.
The minister then participated in a panel focused on tourism at the Future Investment Initiative (FII), a forum that celebrates its fifth anniversary this year and is known as the Davos of the desert. In her speech, the minister said that Spain is promoting “the modernization of the tourism sector to address the dual green and digital transition, deseasonalize and diversify supply and increase international connectivity”. She also assured that the country is being “a leader in tourism recovery” thanks to the “success of the vaccination strategy, with 78.2% of the population with full vaccination”, and the “rapid implementation of the EU digital certificate” to control the spread of COVID-19. Maroto also met with the governor of the PIF (Public Investment Fund) of Saudi Arabia, Yasir Othman al Rumayyan, to discuss possible investments and opportunities for Spanish companies.
