SAUDI ARABIA-GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS FORUM Saudi needs tech start-ups to create jobs - Google's Schmidt

Record ID: 189578

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA-GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS FORUM Saudi needs tech start-ups to create jobs - Google's Schmidt
  • Date: 26th January 2015
  • Summary: SCREEN SHOWING LOGO OF GCF 2015
  • Embargoed: 10th February 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8L77K66O9WY6KK05Q0SD3CAUF
  • Story Text: Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said on Monday (January 26) that Saudi Arabia must encourage technology start-ups to create jobs, as the economy faces challenges amid falling oil prices.
    Saudi Arabia is the world's top oil exporter. It relies on hydrocarbons for 90 percent of its state revenues, but oil's slide is slashing that income.
    The authorities are also under pressure to bring down the unemployment rate - which was 11.8 percent last year, according to official data.
    Schmidt said nearly two-third jobs are created by new companies, and that the kingdom must follow that cue.
    "What is interesting is that researchers have found the start-ups, together with new firms, account for roughly 70 percent of overall job creation. So we are worried here in Saudi about jobs. The best way to solve the jobs problems is to have lots of new entrepreneurial start-ups based on technology to solve the problem," Schmidt told an investment forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
    The three-day Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF) focuses on the country's investment sectors and development projects.
    The chief of the country's investment body said foreign investments had grown considerably in the past 10 years, leading to overall economic growth.
    "Foreign investments have grown more than five-fold in the past decade. GDP has grown from 1.3 trillion (350 billion US dollars) to 2.8 trillion riyals and the public debt has decreased to about two percent of the GDP," the governor of the Saudi Arabian general Investment Authority, Abdullatif al-Othman told the forum.
    The forum will showcase investment opportunities and provide the networking opportunities for delegates and potential investors.
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