PARIS: For French companies looking at Saudi Arabia, the investment proposition is increasingly extending beyond access to the Kingdom’s domestic market.
Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a manufacturing, technology and logistics base from which international companies can serve markets across the Middle East and beyond — a shift that could reshape the role of French businesses already operating in the country.
At the center of that proposition is scale. Saudi Arabia is the region’s largest economy, with GDP of approximately €1.1 trillion, while Vision 2030 is driving the development of industries beyond the Kingdom’s traditional energy base.
The industrial sector illustrates the pace of expansion.
By the end of 2025, Saudi Arabia had 12,946 factories. During that year alone, 1,660 new industrial licenses worth approximately €17.1 billion were issued and 1,201 factories began production.
