Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) recently hosted its eighth Future Investment Summit, bringing financiers and business leaders to Riyadh in a bid to attract significant foreign direct investment (FDI). Oil revenue declines have dented the country's steps towards its ambitious Vision 2030 plan to transform its economy and increased the importance of FDI in helping to meet its bold economic development goals.
It has prompted a shake-up in its foreign investment flows, with a refocusing of national attention on domestic rather than outbound investment. The PIF -- Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund (SWF) -- is the key mover behind this shift, and has come to epitomise the broader trend of SWFs focusing more extensively at home than abroad, and catalysing inbound capital inflows.