Saudi journalists collect their press badges for the Future Investment Initiative – a key gathering overshadowed by the killing of critic Jamal Khashoggi./AFP
Saudi Arabia opened an investment conference on Tuesday despite a wave of cancellations from policymakers and business titans over the murder of journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi.
The three-day Future Investment Initiative (FII) was meant to project the historically insular petro-state as a lucrative business destination and set the stage for new ventures and multi-billion dollar contracts.
But the summit, nicknamed “Davos in the desert,” has been overshadowed by growing global outrage over the murder of Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, with a string of leading international investors pulling out over the case.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to reveal what he has called the “naked truth” about the Khashoggi murder – a killing Ankara has said was “savagely planned.”
The Riyadh conference began amid tight security at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, with Russian Direct Investment Fund chief Kirill Dmitriyev, the CEO of French energy giant Total Patrick Pouyanne and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, among the confirmed speakers listed by organisers for the opening day.
But a growing list of investors and international figureheads have declined to show up in Riyadh in apparent protest against the Khashoggi killing.
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have pulled out.
Siemens chief executive Joe Kaeser, corporate chiefs from JP Morgan, Ford and Uber, and media powerhouses like Bloomberg, CNN and the Financial Times have also scrapped plans to attend.
Ministers from Britain and France as well as the United States, which have huge defence deals at stake with Saudi Arabia, have stayed away.
Pakistan’s Khan attended however as his government continues to seek funding to plug its deteriorating finances.
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