Ann: FBR signs MOU with Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, page-344

How would importing machinery help oil diversification? You're just replacing one dependency with another. Real diversifying would be setting up their own Fastbrick and investing in that but that's not what they are doing.

I don't think the Saudis have come across Fastbrick and said "this technology is amazing, we must have it". What they've done is looked at it and they see how it fits in with their goals of removing foreign workers and replacing them with Saudi nationals.

It's the Saudi government that's doing this, not the private sector. My guess is that the government is doing it as a way to test and develop the regulatory framework and also as a kick starter. After that they will try convince the private sector to do it. They'll likely offer incentives for companies that use robots which reduce the reliance on foreign works.

I'm worried people here are getting over excited that orders are going to start flooding in now from other countries - but find another country that's both rich and has poor foreign workers which are being ethnically cleanse because of a hard line religious ideology?