The relations between Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands go back as far as the 17th century. In fact it was in 1614 that the Dutch got permission to settle in the Arabian Peninsula. The strong commercial interest led to an equally strong interest in the Arabic language and civilization, an interest, which is still very firm in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. These relations were subsequently formalized with the opening of a Dutch Consulate in Jeddah in 1869. This trade relationship has flourished to this date, making the Netherlands one of the ten most important trading partners and investors of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The total trade volume doubled since 2003 and is to reach $ 6 billion in the near future. The Kingdom of the Netherlands exports a wide range of products and technology in various sectors: agriculture, machinery, chemical and petrochemical.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia mainly offers the Netherlands oil and oil products with the port of Rotterdam as an important hub in the worldwide network. Also agricultural products as flowers and vegetables are imported from Saudi Arabia, which is an evident sign of the successful diversification process of the Saudi economy. In recent years Saudi Arabia invested in the Netherlands when SABIC took over the petrochemical part of DSM. Last year the acquisition of GE-plastics included a 2 billion plant in the south of the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is the gateway to Europe with one of the largest ports in the world the Port of Rotterdam and the Airport Schiphol. This offers a unique environment for multinational companies to establish their regional offices in the Netherlands. Examples of Saudi Arabian companies are Aramco with their Aramco Overseas Company headquarters in Leiden and SABIC with their European headquarters in Sittard.

At the moment the cooperation between the two countries is close and has been all the time intensified. Direct investments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from the Netherlands have reached so far $ 3 billion, which makes the latter one of the largest investors in Saudi Arabia. In addition, there is an increase in the number of Saudi-Dutch joint ventures in the Kingdom, which number already 30.

Among these companies are Shell Companies in Saudi Arabia and the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, who are established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since many decades. Companies recently expanding their activities in KSA are for example the dredging company ‘van Oort’ and the electronics concern Philips.

The figures below show the increase in bilateral trade between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of the Netherland.

Trade between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

		Imports	Exports
	Periods	x 1000 euro	x 1000 euro
Total trade	2003	2.013.329	871.161
	2004	2.954.262	939.621
	2005	4.092.352	1.155.391
	2006	4.388.766	1.486.445
	2007 January - October *	2.640.554	1.223.795

 Oil & Gas related trade between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

		Imports	Exports
	Periods	x 1000 euro	x 1000 euro
Minerals Fuels, Minerals Oils and Products of their distillation, Bituminous substances (Ch.27)	2003	1.863.179	1.204
	2004	2.680.858	1.208
	2005	3.706.399	28.168
	2006	3.858.810	88.753
	2007 January - October *	2.250.309	10.605
Plastics and Articles thereof (Ch.39)	2003	8.418	36.835
	2004	11.018	46.427
	2005	11.441	57.702
	2006	12.499	62.997
	2007 January - October *	13.625	45.676

(Import is the trade volume FROM Saudi Arabia to the Netherlands, Export is the trade volume FROM the Netherlands TO Saudi Arabia)© Statistics Netherlands, Voorburg/Heerlen 1/14/2008

You can reach the department of Economical Affairs for further information by  riy-ea@minbuza.nl.