Saudi Arabian firms eye deeper ties with China

China has continued to open up its capital markets in order to attract more international investors, and Saudi Arabia is learning a lot from the country and sees it as a benchmark, said a senior executive of Saudi Tadawul Group.

Nayef Al-Athel, chief sales and marketing officer of STG, said: "When we look at the stock exchanges and the capital market ecosystem in China, we actually learn a lot. Every single change we make in Saudi capital markets, we benchmark various countries and at the forefront of that is the Chinese capital market.

"For example, we have learned quite a lot from the qualified foreign institutional investor, or QFII, program in China, and have designed our own based on lessons learned from the Chinese program that came many years before," Al-Athel said. "The QFII program in Saudi Arabia has successfully attracted more than 4,500 QFIIs, and they have injected more than $140 billion into the Saudi capital market."

China is by far Saudi Arabia's largest trade partner, and Saudi Arabia is China's largest trade partner in the Middle East.

Data from China's Ministry of Commerce show that in 2025, trade volume between China and Saudi Arabia reached $108.16 billion, of which China's exports were $53.42 billion and imports were $54.74 billion.

In the first quarter of this year, the trade volume between China and Saudi Arabia was $24.15 billion, of which China's exports were $12.45 billion and imports were $11.7 billion. China mainly exports mechanical and electrical products, metals and metal products, automobiles and ships, textiles and clothing. Imports mainly include crude oil and petrochemical products, the ministry said.

"I'm sure that the trade relationship between China and Saudi Arabia will continue to boom in 2026. I am also sure that there is an unbelievable amount of effort being done by both central governments and regulators associated with capital markets to make access between both countries seamless," Al-Athel said.

"We would love to see Chinese opportunities being brought closer to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabian investors study China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), through which they find clear directions for investment."

Zhang Chenkai, managing director of Shanghai-based China Insights Consultancy, or CIC, said: "The future cooperation directions between China and Saudi Arabia lie in new energy and ultra-high voltage power grids, high-end manufacturing and heavy industry supply chains going global, digital infrastructure and intelligent computing centers, and financial interconnection and local currency settlement landing."

On Sept 3, STG hosted the main conference of Capital Markets Forum Select Shanghai 2026 — a Saudi Arabian capital market forum — bringing together over 400 participants from Saudi Arabia, China and international capital markets.

Mohammed Al-Rumaih, CEO of Saudi Exchange, said: "CMF Select Shanghai reflects the strong and evolving relationship between Saudi Arabia and China, as well as the opportunities that deeper connectivity can create across our capital markets. We look forward to building on this momentum and further strengthening the integration of the Saudi capital market with China and the wider global capital markets."

zhengyiran@chinadaily.com.cn