While persistent attacks against Westerners and other targets in Saudi Arabia have prompted some Western employees to leave, they have had a limited impact on the operations of most of the companies in the kingdom, the report said.

Recent media reports about the relocation and withdrawal of some Western companies from Saudi Arabia are exaggerated, said Ihsan bu Hulaiga, a Saudi economist.

The challenge is serious but the pullout is not on the table for those companies, he said.

"It might be an option for some Western individuals but not companies. These firms are very well established in Saudi Arabia," Hulaiga told Gulf News by phone.

"The talk that they are simply moving out just because of someterror operations is nonsense. I know that some companies have given their employees the alternative to either stay in the kingdom or leave but that is the whole thing," he said.

Western expatriates in Saudi Arabia are among the smallest foreign communities, which are dominated by Arabs and other Asians.

   But Westerners are the dominant foreign investors in the country which has been locked in a drive to attract capital as part of economic reforms designed to minimize its reliance on volatile oil sales and find jobs for its citizens.

Official figures showed Western and other foreign investments approved by Saudi Arabia over the past five years have totalled around 12.5 billion US dollars, accounting for nearly 83 percent of the overall capital licensed during that period by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia).

Over half of the foreign capital has been pumped by Westerninvestors, mainly from the United States, France, Britain, Germanyand Canada.

In a statement sent to Gulf News on Monday, Sagia said it had approved 2,280 projects worth around 15.36 billion dollars since it was created in April, 2000 to attract the badly needed foreign capital.

Source: Xinhua