Saudi Prince seeks amiable liaison

Press, 9 April 1980, Page 1

Saudi Prince seeks amiable liaison

By

SUSAN MAXWELL,

of the “New Zealand Herald”

! "I want good relations .' between our countries,” : said Prince Nawaf Bin ; Abdul Aziz al Saud in Los : Angeles, after he had con- ! tracted to invest about $lO ' million of his fortune in ; the new ‘ Saudi-New Zeai land joint-venture com- ■; pany of which he himself , will be a director. “The Saudi New Zealand Capital Corporation has a two-fold purpose,” he said. “To help your ■ country by making its /smaller companies strong- ’ er, and to help the rela- ! tionship between our two ' countries.” i . The prince was recently New Zealand’s most-, con-,, troversial, sheepfarnier, and is how. its newest businessman. : : The contract was signed in his luxury suite at the ■ Beverly Hills Hotel in Los

Angeles, in the presence of members of the Development Finance Corporation, who afterwards sealed the deal with an orange juice toast and lunch with the teetotal prince. Prince Nawaf, aged 45, is the brother of Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid. He will own 50 per cent of the shareholding. The other half will be split between the D.F.C. and several New Zealand companies. The company will make loans available to developing New Zealand companies. It will have its first board. meeting in New Zealand early in May, and although the corporation will be half- ; owned by Saudi interests, five of the six seats on

the board will be held by New Zealanders. Two of them, Sir Geoffrey Roberts and the prince’s friend and adviser, Mr D. W. Samuel, will sit on the Saudi side with Prince Nawaf. Sir Geoffrey is a former chairman of Air New Zealand. Mr Samuel was born in New Zealand and is now based at Hong Kong. The three New Zealand seats on the board will be filled by New Zealanders representing local interests. They have yet to be named. Prince Nawaf said that his investment, together with the Coromandel farm he has bought but not yet seen, would bring him to New Zealand soon. “Of course I have an

interest now. We have to develop this relationship,” he said. “Do you think I will make a good farmer?” Unlike banking — in which he has far-flung investments — agriculture has not figured prominently among his previous investment conquests. He was amazed, for example, to learn that different strains of cattle are used for eating and milking. He is anxious to learn, and believes that the lean strains of sheep he hopes to develop on the Coromandel farm will benefit New Zealand export earnings, as w'ell as improving the diet in his area of the world. He sees the long-term survival of Saudi Arabia as dependent on whether the deserfs can be con-

quered to raise food and other industries that will outlast its oil. For this reason he has invested heavily in solar-energy research. Soil could not be made fertile without irrigation, and solar energy was the key to desalination of sea water, he said. Water was natural for New Zealanders, and represented “the only solution” for the future problems of Saudi Arabia. “I like to look out for our own area, of course, but if we can help my country by helping other countries, such as New Zealand, we will,” Prince Nawaf said. “New Zealanders are honest and nice people, and it is good to do business with them.” Mr Rowling's comments, Page 3.