(Aug 20): The Saudi stock exchange is looking to Asian investors to bolster activity in the Middle East’s largest market.

Riyadh is well-positioned to lure investors from the East and West, with Asia currently a key focus for the Saudi Tadawul Group Holding Co, according to the firm’s chief strategy officer, Lee Hodgkinson.

“Connecting Chinese and Saudi investment flows bilaterally, not only is good for the exchanges and good for the investors, but it’s also good for the liquidity of the listed companies,” Hodgkinson said in an episode of Tiger Money, a Bloomberg podcast. “You can expect a lot more from us and we’ll work very hard with our Chinese counterparts on those relationships.”

Two exchange-traded funds focused on Saudi Arabian stocks debuted last month in Shanghai and Shenzhen, indicative of deepening investment links between China and Saudi Arabia as they diversify from the West.

The main exchanges in Hong Kong and Riyadh co-organised a conference in May in the Asian city where officers highlighted mutual interest in offering more products to Chinese and Middle Eastern investors.

The Saudi bourse is looking to tap the “sheer size of investment dollars available that can come from Chinese investors, from Indian investors, from Asian investors,” he said. “We would definitely like to see more investment coming into the kingdom. ETFs provide a really good structure.

Hodgkinson added the company is focused on competing in debt markets, commodities, indexes, data and analytics as well as custody, settlement, and other post trading activities.

“We’re very well positioned in our core market. We’re very well positioned regionally. But where we’re going to have to compete more aggressively as we expand in the years ahead will be in the international environment,” he said. “That’s where you’ll see more M&A, you’ll see more partnership, you’ll see more collaboration.”