Houthi attacks force Saudi Arabia to postpone ‘Davos in the Desert’
The FII investment conference was due to run in Riyadh from October 26 to 29 and is now pushed to next year. Agencies and firms in the capital are sending staff home to work.
Archive image · Photo: B.alotaby / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Saudi Arabia has postponed its flagship Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference, often called “Davos in the Desert”, until next year. The organising FII Institute said a new date would be announced “very soon”. The tenth edition had been scheduled for October 26 to 29 in Riyadh. Expected speakers included Ruth Porat (Alphabet/Google), David Solomon (Goldman Sachs) and Laurence Fink (BlackRock).
Institute CEO Maha bint Mishari Al Saud said the decision came from a “deep commitment to our partners, members, speakers and delegates”. The move follows escalating Houthi attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh's international airport on October 8. According to Al Jazeera, the attacks have killed at least 18 people and injured hundreds.
In Riyadh, government agencies told staff to work from home. The Kingdom Centre, which houses the International Monetary Fund's regional office, asked workers to stay away until further notice. On Monday, residents of the capital received alerts about a “hostile aerial threat”, CBS News reported.