Saudi wealth fund to cut overseas investments: Governer at Riyadh meet

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund plans to cut its overseas investments by about a third, its governor told a conference in Riyadh on Tuesday, as the Kingdom taps into its resources to fund plans to wean the economy off oil.

Speaking on a panel of business, technology and finance leaders, Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said the sovereign wealth fund was more focused on the domestic economy and aiming to bring the fund's international investments down to between 18 per cent and 20 per cent of the total from 30 per cent.

Global business, technology and financial leaders have converged on the Saudi capital for the annual Future Investment Initiative (FII) summit, an opportunity for attendees to forge relations with some of Saudi Arabia's biggest companies and its $925 billion sovereign wealth fund.

The sovereign wealth fund is the main vehicle for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plans to steer the Saudi economy away from oil, with investments of hundreds of billions of dollars to develop new sectors and create more sustainable revenue streams.

However, the fund has been scaling back some of its flagship "giga-projects" due to rising costs.