Saudi Investment Fund to establish company for entertainment

The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund is developing a new company to invest in the country’s growing entertainment sector.

The company will have an initial capitalization of SR10 billion ($2.67 billion).

It will invest in a number of areas of the entertainment sector and seek to attract strategic partnerships to build the eco-system within the Kingdom.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said: “The company’s efforts will enable the development of and provide incentives for the entertainment sector, as well as building local capabilities within the Kingdom.”

“The company’s establishment is consistent with the ambitions within Vision 2030 to increase the Kingdom’s cultural and entertainment offering, to create new employment opportunities, and to make use of the wealth of talent and energy among Saudi youth.”

“The new company will form a central pillar of the Kingdom’s diverse entertainment sector, providing new investment capital to support the sector’s growth and the diversification of the Saudi economy over the short and long-term,” SPA said, and would also “localize the large amount of spending on entertainment outside the Kingdom, in addition to promoting the entertainment sector’s role in diversifying revenue streams.”

Vision 2030 will necessitate infrastructure investment with the new Jeddha airport and the Haramain High Speed Rail line slated to open in 2018.

There will be a focus on large scale projects such as KidZania in Jeddah and Snow City in Riyadh to encourage Saudis to spent more of their disposable income at home.

American theme park giant Six Flags has also revealed its plans to create three theme parks in the country. Each theme park will cost up to $500 million to build. The first Six Flags park will be in the capital, Riyadh and is scheduled to open by 2021. The second and third could be in Jeddah and on the western Red Sea coast.

Image credit: Saudi Arabia

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