Arab investment company earns over $ 28 mln

The board of the Arab investment company is due to hold a meeting later on Friday to discuss topics related the firm's activities in the domains of investment and banking.

The company said in a press statement that the meeting, to be headed by the board chairman, Mohammed Bin Sulaiman Al-Jaser, also deputy governor of the Saudi Arab Monetary Corporation, would focus on the strategy of the company during the 2000-2004 period.

The strategy encompasses policies, main broadlines, future aspirations on developing local resources in Arab states by means of funding investment ventures.

The Riyadh-based company, which earned 28.5 million dollars during the first nine months of this year, was established in 1974 with a paid-up capital amounting to 372 million dollars.

Seventeen Arab governments have shares in the company, affiliated with a banking branch in Bahrain, responsible for all banking operations including the financing of projects according to the Islamic Shariaa (LAW).

The company, which has regional bureaus in Cairo, Tunis and Amman, follows execution of the company-funded ventures and explores potential investment opportunities.

Currently, it contributes to 35 investment ventures in Arab states in realms ins of industry, services and agriculture.

The latest of these ventures is the steel manufacturing project in Egypt. The steel plant, the sole of its kind in the Arab states, produces 140,000 tons per year of the first-grade steel, used in the industry of electronics.