Jamal Khashoggi: the elephant in the room at Saudi Arabia’s ‘Davos in the Desert’
- Saudi Arabia will host a key investment summit on Tuesday
- Dozens of executives have scrapped plans to attend
It’s an investment summit in the shadow of a killing: stripped of the glitz and glamour of business titans who last year flew in to woo a young prince and be a part of his grand plans to transform his country’s economy.
Hosted by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the three-day Future Investment Initiative conference that kicks off in Riyadh on Tuesday was meant to showcase the opportunities created by reform efforts to break the economy’s dependence on oil and unveil billion-dollar contracts in front of the world’s business elite.
That was until the killing of government critic Jamal Khashoggi prompted dozens of finance and business leaders to pull out.
Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – who posed for selfies with hundreds of delegates at last year’s conference – will be keen to show that it’s business as usual in the kingdom, even as European leaders and US President Donald Trump demand more information on how the Washington Post columnist was killed at its consulate in Istanbul.
No-shows from the likes of Deutsche Bank AG’s Christian Sewing, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon and BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink will deal a blow to the 33-year-old leader and the kingdom, which has built close ties with Wall Street executives and relies largely on global banks to finance its ambitious plans.
But a delegation of Russian chief executives including at least one billionaire still plan to show up. Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund and a leading player in President Vladimir Putin’s push to engage Saudi Arabia, has encouraged business leaders in fields ranging from petrochemicals to diamonds to banking to attend.