Saudi Arabia has abruptly postponed the Future Investment Initiative, a large international investment conference scheduled for late this month, pushing it to next year as the kingdom faces its worst security crisis amid an intensifying offensive by Yemen's pro-Iran Houthi rebels.
Maha Al Saud, chief executive of the FII Institute, announced on X, formerly Twitter, on the 19th that the 10th FII event, originally set for Oct. 26-29, has been postponed to 2027, according to CNBC and other foreign media.
Known as "Davos in the Desert," the FII is a flagship state event at which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman invites global investors, business executives and heads of state to promote his plan to diversify the economy away from oil and to attract foreign capital. This year's gathering was to draw a large contingent of global financial heavyweights, including Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and executives from Standard Chartered and Citigroup.
The postponement follows a sustained escalation of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis against Saudi military, energy and civilian infrastructure. An airstrike on King Khalid International Airport in the capital Riyadh on the 10th killed as many as 18 people and injured hundreds, the heaviest casualty toll in more than a decade, and the airport has been shut indefinitely since. Beyond the airport, the headquarters of state oil company Aramco and major oil facilities have also been damaged.
Saudi Arabia has also suspended plans to build Neom Stadium, a project tied to its hosting of the 2034 World Cup, because of the Houthi strikes and the fallout from the Iran war. Development of Trojena, a four-season tourism complex featuring ski slopes, luxury resorts and artificial lakes in Neom's mountainous terrain at elevations of up to 2,600 meters, has also been halted.
FII organizers had sought to press ahead with the event, weighing a hybrid format incorporating video conferencing and offering alternative land and sea travel routes. But they eventually abandoned the plan after executives at major global banks and private equity firms conveyed safety concerns to Saudi officials and Western governments issued a series of travel warnings for the Middle East.
Foreign media assessed that the postponement deals an unavoidable blow to the crown prince's national reform drive, which aimed to attract billions of dollars in global capital to shift the economy toward new industries such as tourism, sports and technology.
