Investment Treaty Planning
As part of the Saudi Government's "Vision 2030"
plan to reduce the country's long-term reliance on oil, the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ("KSA") intends
to develop alternative domestic sectors including retail,
manufacturing, construction, energy, finance, mining, hospitality
and tourism.1 To achieve this, the KSA is aiming for a
twenty-fold increase in foreign direct investment to approximately
$100 billion a year by 2030, reforming the foreign investment
landscape by allowing 100% foreign ownership in specific sectors
and streamlining the business approval procedure.
Companies investing overseas often structure, or restructure,
their operations in a way that affords them protections under
so-called bilateral, multilateral or regional investment protection
treaties. These investment treaties govern a state's treatment
of investments made by individuals or companies from another state.
They not only oblige host countries to provide broad
