mately $22.5 billion. There were a total of over 1400 joint venture projects in process involving $34.3 billion in overall investment, with the United States the largest investor. Other major investors in the Kingdom were Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, and Germany (A Business Guide, 1996).
Investment incentives currently offered by the government, and accruing to foreign investors in partnership with Saudi citizens, include pre investment assistance, land, low cost utilities and fuel, customs duty exemption, industrial loans, and government procurement preference, among other things.
The modern history of Saudi Arabia has been shaped by the actions of the House of Saud. The state of Saudi Arabia itself did not come into existence until 1932, but the Saud family had sought to unify and control the Arabian Peninsula since the mid 1700s.
At that time, the Peninsula was occupied by a number of nomadic peoples and tribal groups. In addition, the Ottoman Empire had an interest in the region. The House of Saud began its period of conquest in 1744, led by Muhammad ibn Saud, a follower of the Wahhabi sect. Essentially, the Wahhabite movement was a conservative reform movement within Islam that sought to purify the faith and unite people behind a more fundamentalist view of the nature of Allah.
However, the Saud family had to endure almost two centuries of taking and retaking areas of the Peninsula. It was not until the early 1900s that Abdul Aziz ibn Saud returned from exile in Kuwait and united the nomadic tribes, rapidly extending his influence through the Hejaz and Najd. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed in 1932 as an Islamic country. Since that time it has been ruled by descendants of Abdul Aziz, including Faisal, Khalid, and Fahd.
Islam is the religion of Saudi Arabia. This is the Sunni branch of Islam and it is a conservative Islam that has its origins in the Wahhabi sect. Thus, this...