Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. says a $37 billion deal with Boeing announced in April will create a total of 300,000 jobs, a third of them in the U.S. Princess Reema bint Bandar told workers and officials at Boeing’s Boeing 787 factory in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 5, the deal will establish her country as a leader in international transportation. “The deal will propel Saudi Arabia into a global logistics hub and generate 200,000 direct and indirect jobs and countless opportunities in trade and tourism,” she said. “This historic investment will create around 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the U.S. across several states.”
Boeing will supply 121 aircraft, 72 of them 787s, to Saudi Arabia’s new airline Riyahd Air. The ambassador said it’s all part of a plan to attract up to $80 billion a year in tourism and other business to the kingdom. “In just a few years, Boeing planes will transport millions of tourists to the Kingdom, and for many of them, this trip may be their first, which would contribute to deepening the relations between our peoples and would also contribute to the rapprochement of our cultures.”
