KPMG plans to Create more than 700 Jobs in Saudi Arabia

KPMG Al Fozan & Partners, a provider of audit, tax and advisory services in Saudi Arabia, has announced plans to create more than 700 jobs over the next five years, with a focus on Saudi nationals.

The company said it has achieved significant growth in the Gulf kingdom, which introduced VAT in January 2018, adding that it expects to see further growth from both public and private sectors as businesses keep pace with the changes in the country’s economy.

Abdullah Al-Fozan, chairman of KPMG MESA and KPMG in Saudi Arabia, said: “KPMG is witnessing record growth in the kingdom due to the increasing demand for its services by both the private and public sector, with a particular focus on advisory.”

Al-Fozan said KPMG is looking to recruit qualified nationals to fill professional roles. At the end of the first quarter of this year, there were about 1,200 employees in KPMG in Saudi Arabia of which over 500 were Saudi nationals.

He added: “KPMG plans to add at least 700 professionals over the next five years to meet the expected growth in business. In line with this plan, KPMG has moved into new spacious offices in Jeddah and Khobar and has already signed a lease agreement for a new office complex in Riyadh.”

The introduction of VAT at the beginning of this year was an "important landmark", he said, adding that he is confident that the tax will "benefit everyone and create huge employment opportunities for Saudis, both in public and private sectors".

Saudi Arabia and US deals Create 750,000 Jobs

US President Donald Trump and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince  Mohammed bin Salman

Saudi Arabia and the US have signed 46 deals in these sectors, of which 13 are in the oil and gas sector and six each in the defence and technology sectors.

As many as 750,000 jobs are expected to be created in Saudi Arabia and the United States following the signing of landmark agreements worth a total of more than $400 billion in 10 key sectors during the ongoing visit of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defence.

These vital sectors including defence and oil are identified for attracting investments as part of a vibrant economic partnership program in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

The Kingdom and US have signed 46 deals in these sectors, of which 13 are in the oil and gas sector and six each in the defence and technology sectors.

There are seven memoranda of understanding in the health sector, four in manufacturing, three each in mining and petrochemicals, two in investment, and one each in the aviation and energy sectors.

More than one-fourth of these investments go to the defence sector with an investment of $128 billion.

The signing of the deals showed the Kingdom’s keenness to build local capabilities in the military industries.

Five MoUs worth $18.5 billion were signed by Saudi Military Industries Corporation and Aviation Information Technology Company (SAVIT) with a number of leading US companies including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and General Dynamics for developing military hardware systems.

The total value of deals signed in the petrochemical sector reached $72 billion while the deals in the oil and gas sector amounted to a total of $54 billion.

In the investment sector, the total investment would account for $150 billion whereas the MoU in the aviation sector is for buying 16 wide-body aircraft with values ranging between $2 billion and $5 billion. There will be $5 billion investments in the technology sector, $6 billion in mining, $3 billion in health, $12 billion in energy, and $400 million in manufacturing.

Meanwhile, Crown Prince Muhammad arrived in New York where he is expected to meet several prominent businessmen and Wall Street bankers.The five-day stay of the Crown Prince in New York will be filled with meetings both political and economic in nature.

The Crown Prince will participate in the Saudi-US CEO Forum, the Saudi Embassy in Washington said.The forum will be attended by prominent figures, such as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Co-Founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co Henry Kravis, and Chief Executive Officer of NASDAQ Adena Friedman.

Economic relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States are witnessing a new phase after the signing of several agreements and memorandums of understanding worth hundreds of billions of dollars in various sectors, including the technology sector.

Agreements signed between Saudi Arabia and the US in the technology sector included the signing of a MoU between the Saudi government and Microsoft to contribute to the digital transformation of Saudi Arabia through the transfer of knowledge and acquisition of systems related to artificial intelligence.

Four other MoUs were also signed between a number of Saudi companies, including Saudi Aramco, Saudi Electricity Company and Safnat, with a number of US companies to build the advanced data systems and optimize the utilization of 4G technologies in the areas of their work to improve business efficiency and development.

Agreements signed by Saudi Aramco included one with Honeywell to make use of the company›s services in the Fourth Industrial Revolution to create 400 jobs by 2020 and an agreement with GE to support the digital conversion of Aramco operations in the Fourth Industrial Revolution worth $4 billion and expected to create 750 jobs by 2020.

Saudi Arabian Mining Company Maaden signed an agreement with Alcoa to expand its mining capacity in Ras Al Khair Industrial City by investing $500 million in a deal expected to create 500 jobs by 2020.

Maaden and Mosaic also signed a feasibility study for Phosphate 3 project worth $45 billion and expected to create nearly 1,000 jobs by 2020.

Saudi Arabia, Softbank to build world's largest solar park Create 100,000 Jobs

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 

Saudi Arabia and SoftBank Group signed a memorandum of understanding to build a $200 billion solar power development that’s exponentially larger than any other project.

The project will create as many as 100,000 jobs and shave $40 billion off power costs, according to SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, known for backing ambitious endeavours with flair, unveiled the project Tuesday in New York at a ceremony with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

The powerful heir to the throne of the world’s largest crude exporter is seeking to diversify the economy and wean off a dependence on oil.

At 200 gigawatts, the project planned for the Saudi desert would be about 100 times larger than the next biggest proposed development, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Son said he envisions the project, which runs the gamut from power generation to panel and equipment manufacturing, will create as many as 100,000 jobs and shave $40 billion off power costs. The development will reach its maximum capacity by 2030 and may cost close to $1 billion a gigawatt, he said.

“The kingdom has great sunshine, great size of available land and great engineers, great labour, but most importantly, the best and greatest vision,” Son told reporters at a briefing.

Deepening ties

The agreement deepens SoftBank’s ties with Saudi Arabia and advances the crown prince’s ambition to diversify its economy.

“SoftBank seeks investment and Saudi needs energy so it may make sense to sort the financing out in a large block and then separately hammer out the phases and the technical details,” said Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis at BNEF.

“It is worth noting that many of these memorandums of understanding do not result in anything happening.”

SoftBank was said to be planning to invest as much as $25 billion in Saudi Arabia over the next three to four years. That’s a boost for Prince Mohammed, who’s been at the forefront of the Vision 2030 campaign to diversify the kingdom’s economy away from oil by that year.

SoftBank is said to have aimed to deploy as much as $15 billion in a new city called Neom, which the crown prince plans to build on the Red Sea coast.

The Japanese company’s Vision Fund is also said to plan investments of as much as $10 billion in state-controlled Saudi Electricity Co. as part of efforts to diversify the utility into renewables and solar energy.

Vision, investments

Son, who is known as a savvy investor with a flair for the spotlight, has been promoting clean energy since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and recently completed a 50-megawatt wind power farm in Mongolia.

He has also pushed a plan dubbed “Asia Super Grid,” a plan to connect Asian nations by grids and undersea cables to distribute clean energy.

The kingdom’s deal-making has quickened as it pursues Prince Mohammed’s diversification goals. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, which has more than $224 billion in assets, spent about $54 billion on investments last year.

The sale of about a 5 percent stake in oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is expected to provide more funds.

Saudi Arabia also plans to build at least 16 nuclear reactors over the next 25 years at a cost of more than $80 billion. Electricity demand in the country has risen by as much as 9 percent a year since 2000, according to BNEF.