HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023649.jpg

* How much do your highness expect the anticipated increase in the public debt in 2017/2018?

- Public debt as announced in the fiscal balance program will not exceed 30%, we target the public debt on the GDB 30% and so far, we have not reached 30%. There are some expectations that even in 2020 we will be less than 30%. A public debt of 30% does not mean a problem, some of the countries in the world have GDB in some of them up to 50%, some up to 60% and some up to 200%, including G20 countries. If we look at the big countries, the five major economies have more than 30% public debt. So that, it is healthy for the Saudi economy to involve a percent of public debt, which means that we have opportunities for development programs on which we spend money. We have two options: to spend and continue to develop, to create jobs, to create opportunities, to create private sector opportunities, or to stop spending. Our public debt is very low, giving us a comparative advantage that we can rise to international rates and continue to spend.

* How do you see the future of the Public Investment Fund over the next three years? Would it be an internal or internal and external investment?

- The Public Investment Fund is one of the most important pillars of Vision 2030. We have several opportunities to develop the size of the Public Investment Fund:

1- Unutilized assets. Too many assets have been entered, some of which may have been reviewed or announced to the public investment fund. These will be reflected in the size of the fund, the size of the value of the fund, and the profits of the fund.

2- We have heard that some of the reserves that are not of the state's funds need to be transferred to the public investment fund, about 100 billion riyals several months ago. Also, there is a restructuring of the public investment fund companies so that their performance, growth and profits are better than the previous. All of these will maximize the size of the Public Investment Fund, on top of this the offer of Saudi Aramco.

* His Highness the prince, What about Aramco?

- As we state, the most important offer in the Public Investment Fund is the ARAMCO offer. This will provide huge sums to the Public Investment Fund and also it will help in targeting many sectors inside and outside Saudi Arabia. One of the most important sectors to be targeted by the Fund within Saudi Arabia, is the mining sector. According to the survey of the 1970s, which was re-examined last year, I think there are mining opportunities of (Trillion and three hundred billion US dollars). The value of minerals in Saudi Arabia, of which gold is more than 240 billion US dollars and that requires a very huge investment. It is always difficult for foreign and domestic investors to take risks in a new sector such as mining. Consequently, the investment should be through the Public Investment Fund. The company of Aramco contribution with part of the money (cash) in the fund will provide the Fund with the ability to invest in this new sector, which has now only utilized less than 3%, and we have another very important goal which is the local content target. Today's volume of Saudi Arabia purchases outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on goods, commodities, activities or so on, amounting to US $ 230 billion. According to the vision of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2030, half of this spending will be within the Kingdom, and when we talk about what are the most important local content items ($ 230 billion), the most important item is Military manufacturing, which ranges from $ 50 to $ 70 billion a year, sometimes increases, sometimes less. We are the third largest country in the world to spend 99% of the military armament outside the Kingdom. This is a huge opportunity to create large industries within the Kingdom, also to

HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023649