RIYADH: The Saudi government handed out contracts 60 billion riyals ($16 billion) in construction deals in the past six months as the top oil exporter continues a infrastructure plan, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.
The government launched in 2009 a five-year spending plan averaging an annual $80 billion to mainly develop infrastructure and its oil facilities and counter the repercussions of the global crisis on an little-diversified economy.
The Gulf Arab state handed out in total contracts worth 71.5 billion riyals in the December 18-June 12 period, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
Of construction contracts, 10.5 billion riyals was spent on roads and telecommunications and the same amount on education facilities, while about 6 billion riyals went to water and sewage projects and 5.6 billion riyals to village and town developments, SPA said.
