French Minister for Foreign Trade Francois Loos held talks with Saudi officials here Saturday focusing on boosting economic links and setting up joint ventures, the state SPA news agency said.
Loos, who arrived in Riyadh on Friday night accompanied by executives from 30 French firms, met Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf, Trade and Industry Minister Hashem Yamani, Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah al-Hussayen and Transport Minister Jebarah al-Suraisri, SPA said.
The talks with Assaf centred on "enhancing economic co-operation, chiefly in the field of investments," while Loos and Yamani explored ways of increasing bilateral trade and "setting up joint ventures between the private sectors in the two friendly countries," it said.
The French embassy said earlier this week that the volume of Saudi-French trade reached some 4.26 billion dollars last year.
French investments in Saudi Arabia top 1.2 billion dollars, making France the third biggest foreign investor in the oil-rich kingdom.
In November 2003, a consortium led by Total of France and Royal Dutch/Shell signed a landmark deal with Saudi Arabia for gas exploration and production in Rub al-Khali, or the Empty Quarter, desert in the south of the country.
There have been different estimates of the value of the deal. The embassy statement on the Loos visit put it at two billion dollars.
Following Saudi Arabia's opening of some sectors to foreign and local investors, Paris is seeking contracts for areas such as management of airports and highways, water desalination and telecommunications.
Loos was due to fly to the Red Sea city of Jeddah Saturday afternoon to meet King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and on Sunday go to neighbouring Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.