(Yicai) Dec. 16 -- China has had a multifaceted positive impact on Saudi Arabia's development, and the two countries have consistently maintained an excellent partnership in trade and business, according to the vice chairman of the board of the Saudi National Development Fund.

Yicai interviewed Mohammed Al-Tuwaijri during the Momentum 2025 Development Finance Conference, which ran from Dec. 9 to Dec. 11.

As China's largest trading partner in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is accelerating its economic transformation under the Vision 2030 initiative. The NDF is a key institution supporting the achievement of the economic transformation goals outlined in the Vision 2030.

Excerpts of the interview are below:

Yicai: The Vision 2030 is an important strategic blueprint for Saudi Arabia's economic transformation. As this strategy approaches its 10th anniversary, were there significant directional adjustments or upgrades in Saudi Arabia's fiscal strategy?

Mohammed Al-Tuwaijri: First of all, thank you so much. It's always great to speak with a Chinese audience. China had a lot of positive influence on our region. We have a fantastic relationship as a trade partner and business partner with China. So, I'm honored. Thank you so much.

If you noticed, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the last 10 years has focused a lot on diversifying the economy. Hence, there have been a lot of new sectors, new projects, and new ideas that were introduced into the system. Just to give you an example, tourism, culture, sports, e-sports, mega projects, logistics, connectivity, and a new airline.

This is all about the non-oil gross domestic product growth, although the Kingdom is still focused on its oil and gas energy business as a global leader. It's very important. And the focus of this government has been recently around the new economy, or the non-oil economy, and most of our resources were directed toward that particular growth. So today, around 55 percent of our GDP is non-oil. We're very proud of that. This is a journey.

The particular importance is given to the private sector. How do you enable it to grow and participate in this journey? And our financing system, the NDF was established about seven years ago to make sure that the private sector in all segments -- SMEs and beyond -- are enabled, financed, engaged with this transformation.

Yicai: The NDF is viewed as an 'umbrella institution' that integrates 12 different funds and acts as a 'strategic engine room.' From the perspective of system design, what are the core concepts and strategic logic behind this highly centralized collaborative model?

Al-Tuwaijri: The main key answer is impact. How would this collective number of funds in different sectors make an impact on very specific criteria? These criteria are non-oil GDP growth, improved balance of payment, creating sustainable jobs, and improving local content.

We're orchestrating this through the Treasury, centralized treasury, through strategic allocation of capital, through a model-based approach, to make sure that wherever the impact is, delivery of funding and focus is, but there is a short-term thing. For example, during the pandemic, we deployed 29 billion real to sectors that were hurt the most -- transportation, etc. -- and there is a shock absorber mechanism to the NDF in case it's needed. Especially the vulnerable private sector.

Yicai: In the face of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, how does Saudi Arabia strike a balance between adhering to the discipline of its long-term development roadmap and maintaining the flexibility to seize new opportunities?

Al-Tuwaijri: The public investment fund's role is to bring in new technologies to the Kingdom, create a new sector, and help with the development of the economy. And this is a trade-off. How much risk are we willing to take? Because AI is a relatively level playing field. It is an opportunity like when we had mobile phones, like when we had the internet in the early days.

The Kingdom has a governance system to tell us how much risk we can take in a new sector, with a lot of studies and analysis behind it. So we do have that culture of governance to make decisions around ideas that come to the world, like AI.

Yicai: How do you view the economic cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China? How can both sides build a partnership that goes beyond the traditional 'buyer and seller' model?

Al-Tuwaijri: Three years ago, we had a very limited number of flights between Saudi Arabia and China. This number has increased significantly, with direct flights between Riyadh, Jeddah, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and the list is coming with Riyadh Air, we will have more destinations. We have hundreds of schools in Saudi Arabia teaching Chinese language, and the appetite is amazing. China has approved Saudi Arabia as a tourist destination.

There are a lot of Chinese companies that are interested in having regional offices in the Kingdom. You know, our institutions and giants are investing in China. So yes, trade is important, but also we're sharing our knowledge. We're sharing our ideas with China. And we think the people-to-people is also a very important aspect of the relationship. In a way, a lot of people, although we are much, much smaller than China, but the attitude a lot of people compare the Kingdom now with China 30 years ago.

Editor: Futura Costaglione