UAE and Saudi Arabia lead GCC Greenfield Investment
Industries that saw the largest value of announced greenfield projects in the UAE in 2024 include real estate, software & IT, renewables, coal, oil and gas, business services, and automotive OEMs
There has been a marginal rise in the number of announced greenfield projects across the GCC in 2024, up 1% to 1,830 from 1,813 the previous year. The growth is being spearheaded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
As the primary destination market for greenfield foreign direct investments (FDI) within the GCC, Saudi Arabia walked away with the lion’s share in 2024, accounting for 54% of the total value of projects in the region followed by UAE with 36% share.
There does, however, appear to have been a decline in the average project value across the GCC, with the total value of projects having fallen by 26% year-on-year in 2024. The Kingdom has set an explicit target for FDI in its Vision 2030 plans, hoping to attract $100bn annually by 2030, with greenfield FDI projects playing an important role in reaching that figure.
The primary sources of FDI into GCC economies in 2024, on a value basis, included the US (25%), China (17%), the UK (9%) and India (9%). The UAE also made a material contribution to greenfield FDI in the rest of the GCC, accounting for 5% of announced projects in 2024. Sectors seeing the highest value of greenfield projects include communications (18%), renewables (14%), metals (8%), electronic components (8%), as well as coal, oil and gas (8%).
Notwithstanding, the value of greenfield project announcements across Saudi Arabia declined 28% y/y in 2024 to almost US$22bn, but remains a strong showing, being the third highest annual value on record.
Scaling up to achieve the required levels of inflow will be facilitated by a series of reforms. These include allowing 100% foreign ownership of companies, a bankruptcy law, and more recently a new law unifying the treatment of foreign and local firms to ensure a level playing field.
The US, China, the UK and the UAE were the top source countries for Saudi greenfield projects last year. The value of projects stemming from the US saw a sharp rise in 2024, driven by a $5.3bn investment by Amazon Web Services in data and innovation centres.
Meanwhile, Dubai remained the largest recipient of greenfield FDI in the UAE, accounting for around 58% of the total value of announced projects, followed by Sharjah with almost 12% in 2024, it stated.
Industries that saw the largest value of announced greenfield projects in the UAE in 2024 include real estate, software & IT, renewables, coal, oil and gas, business services, and automotive OEMs.
The UAE features as the source country for two of the top 10 projects by value of investment, including a real estate investment into Ras El-Hekma in Egypt by ADQ and an investment by Mubadala in semiconductor manufacturing in the US.
