Saudi government entities awarded more than SAR6.5 billion ($1.7 billion) of contracts in January, led by housing, infrastructure and industry.
More than half the value of the contracts issued last month – SAR3.7 billion – was allocated towards construction, with the remainder going on water, energy and industry projects, the Saudi Contractors’ Authority (SCA) said last week in its latest Muqawil (contractor) bulletin.
There were 15 projects in all, and the capital Riyadh took the lion’s share by value at SAR4.8 billion.
This month, the SCA is expecting the number of awarded contracts to rise to 25, from entities including Saudi Electricity Company, the National Housing Company and the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
“Nearly 50% of them cover housing, infrastructure and industry,” the SCA said in an online report. It did not give a projected value.
Saudi Arabia, Opec’s largest producer and the largest Arab economy, is spending billions on infrastructure and other projects as it seeks to diversify its economy away from oil and create jobs for a growing national population.
In a report last month, Kuwait-based Kamco Investment firm said the value of awarded Saudi government contracts surged by nearly 25 percent year on year to around $146.8 billion in 2024.
That accounted for more than half the $273 billion of projects awarded across the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.
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