National oil giant Saudi Aramco expects a huge ship repair and shipbuilding complex that it is developing at Ras al-Khair on the kingdom's east coast to befully operational by 2021, chief executive officer Amin Nasser recently said.

The first part of the shipbuilding complex will be ready by 2018, and it will eventually make oil rigs and tankers, Nasser told reporters during a rare mediavisit to company facilities in Dhahran.

A presentation by the company showed the complex would create 80,000 jobs and allow Saudi Arabia to reduce its imports by $12bn, while increasing the country'sgross domestic product by $17bn.

Under a sweeping economic reform programme announced last month, Aramco is to play a big role in developing industrial projects as Saudi Arabia tries to diversifyits economy beyond reliance on oil exports.