Saudi Arabia looks to take partnership with China and Southeast Asia beyond AI: ‘There’s so many untapped areas’

AI was one of the hottest topics in Kuala Lumpur this week, as leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and China met in the Malaysian capital.

Yet Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for International Relations at the Ministry of Investment, Sara Al Sayed, is already looking for new partnerships in other sectors.

“When we came here [Kuala Lumpur], we saw there’s a strong emphasis on AI. [But] there’s so many untapped areas that we could potentially collaborate. I do believe agriculture and food security could potentially be a very strong component for collaboration,” Sara said at a panel during Fortune’s ASEAN-GCC Economic Forum on Wednesday.

The panel was a special session on enhancing ASEAN-GCC-China Investments and included Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Liew Chin Tong, Maybank’s CEO Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli, and the chairman of China Energy Engineering Corporation, Song Hai Liang.

Saudi Arabia is already participating in the agriculture sector. The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co. (SALIC), which is owned by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, has already invested in at least eight countries, with the total exceeding 27 billion Saudi riyals ($7.2 billion), Sara said on Wednesday.

Part of those investments are in Southeast Asia. In February, SALIC acquired a 44.57% stake in Olam Agri for $1.78 billion, bringing its total ownership stake to 80.01%. Olam Agri is part of the Olam Group, a Singapore-based agri-business is one of the few Southeast Asian companies on the Fortune Global 500.

Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power also signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia’s Investment Development Authority to facilitate strategic investment projects in clean energy infrastructure across Malaysia. The partnership targets 12.5 gigawatts of capacity by 2040 and has an estimated investment value of $10 billion.

Expanding Islamic finance

Another area of collaboration is in finance.

Islamic finance is already big business in the Gulf, particularly in countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is the leading economy in the sector, driven by Maybank, Asia-Pacific’s largest Islamic financial institution.

Maybank’s CEO Khairussaleh said that the opportunity is “huge” even just in Southeast Asia.

“The halal economy in ASEAN is about $300 billion, and that’s only about 10% of the total GDP of ASEAN,” Khairussaleh said. “When you look at the population of ASEAN, about 35% is Muslim so there’s a lot of upsides just to cater to the Muslims.” 

Yet beyond the Muslim population, Khairussaleh suggested that Islamic finance isn’t exclusively for Muslims and could appeal to some investors due to its more ethical-based approach.

Islamic wealth management follows Shariah law, which means some aspects do not align with conventional finance. For example, Islamic financial investments avoid sectors and companies engaged in prohibited activities such as alcohol or gambling.

“From the GCC, from China, we know there’s so many affluent people. If we can first provide the awareness and then provide solutions that are of value of them, that can push Islamic finance to the forefront,” Khairussaleh said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com