Execs bailing on Saudi ‘Davos in the desert’

New York, NY — Top business executives are distancing themselves from Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, with many canceling their attendance at an upcoming investment conference that the country had hoped to use to boost its global image.

With reports circulating of the writer’s torture and killing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, executives who have been doing business with Saudi Arabia for years are in damage control mode.

What was at first a trickle of cancellations from the Saudi event, due to be held in Riyadh on Oct. 23-25, has turned into a rush.

The Future Investment Initiative was set up last year as a kind of “Davos in the Desert” for the world’s business elite to network.

At last year’s inaugural event the country announced the creation of a whole new city in the desert that would showcase new technologies like renewable energies.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been trying to refocus the Saudi economy away from its traditional reliance on oil by investing in more innovative industries, including big firms like Uber.