Saudi Arabia’s reform process is heading in the right direction, but the Kingdom needs to “scale up” in certain areas of the economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. The IMF’s Director for the Middle East and Central Asia, Jihad Azour, told journalists in Dubai that prospects for foreign direct investments (FDI) would benefit from more government measures to increase public sector involvement. “The fiscal reform process is heading in the right direction, but improving employment prospects are subject to continued structural reform and the Vision 2030 program. Allowing women to drive is expected to have a positive effect on growth, but more progress is still needed and it needs to scale up, especially in education for local skills, and allowing small-to-medium enterprises to grow with access to finance,” he said. Regarding FDIs, he said the oil industry had its own dynamic, but that other sectors were still dependent on public investment, and FDIs would come if there were more opportunities in the private sector and in SMEs.