The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is characterised by a strategic and important geographical location through overlooking the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea, making it a big connection between the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa and a main transport hub for the land, air and sea commercial routes, which was invested by the Saudi Vision 2030 that relied on diversifying the non-oil economy.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has launched the National Transport and Logistics Strategy – which is one of the basic aspects for the 2030 Saudi Vision – that contributes to enhancing the human and technical capabilities in the transport and logistics services sector, boosting connection with the global economy, enabling the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to invest its geographical location amidst the three continents in diversifying its economy through establishing advanced industries of logistic services.

The strategy aims at making Saudi Arabia a global centre for transport and logistics services, and increasing the contribution of the sector to 10% of the GDP up from its current rate of 6%, in addition to make the Saudi Arabia among the top 35 countries on the cross-border commerce index, and to become among the top 6 countries in the quality of roads, and ship more than 4.5 million tons through air annually, as well as increasing destinations to over 250 international destinations.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has 13 ports on the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea, where 13 percent of the global trade pass through them, and these ports contribute to the access of 70% of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s imports and 95% of its exports through 291 docks.

According to data released by General Authority for Statistics, the total value of non-oil exports from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2021 reached SAR 187,950,268,805, while the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s imports in the same year reached SAR 343,665,939,711.

CEO of the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) Omar Al-Hariri, speaking to SPA, said that Mawani has endorsed is new corporate strategy in a way that supports commerce and economic development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, noting that the attractiveness and status of Saudi ports have made the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia realize the fifth quickest country in the world in dealing with container ships.

As a result of the unlimited support of the wise leadership to the ports sector, the size of handling tons of goods during the first quarter of 2022 increased by 7.18% with a total of more than 74 million tons, where the number of shipped containers increased by 5.91% with around 1.5 million standard containers, when compared with the same period of 2021.

Saudi ports also recorded hikes in several other operational indicators, such as the increase in the number of cars by 12.85% with a total of 219,488 cars, the increase of passengers by 61.7% to 258,076, and an increase in the number of ships by 0.28% to a total of 3,186 ships.