Last checked at 
(Adds comments by Jordanian and Indian leaders, Kushner)
By Stephen Kalin, Davide Barbuscia and Marwa Rashad
RIYADH, Oct 29 (Reuters) - What a difference a year makes.
There was standing room only in the expansive halls of
Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel on Tuesday as the world's financial
royalty attended Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative
(FII) conference, aimed at courting global investors.
Saudi Arabia said it signed more than two dozen investment
deals worth $15 billion in total, mostly in manufacturing, as
the kingdom strives to show Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's
diversification plan is on track after limited progress since
the first FII forum in 2017.
Last year's event was overshadowed by the murder of Saudi
journalist Jamal Khashoggi as dozens of Western leaders and
executives boycotted the gathering.
On Tuesday, bosses of HSBC, Blackstone,
BlackRock, Colony Capital and Evercore
were among the crowd at the luxury hotel that less than 24
months ago served as one of the detention centres for more than
200 businessmen, ministers and princes during a corruption purge
that had unnerved investors.
The United States sent a big delegation including its energy
and treasury secretaries, and senior White House advisor Jared
Kushner. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian
President Jair Bolsonaro are also participating in the Oct.
29-31 event, as is the head of the World Bank.
Prince Mohammed in 2016 launched a plan to transform the
economy of the world's largest crude exporter by developing
non-energy industries. But state oil giant Aramco remains the
biggest draw for investors eager for news on its initial public
offering which has had several false starts.
ARAMCO LURE
Aramco CEO Amin Nasser was absent from the conference as he
was meeting investors abroad to secure a domestic IPO on Nov. 3
after a delay earlier this month, three people with direct
knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
It could be the largest listing in history, if the $2
trillion valuation target sought by the crown prince is met.
"There are several Russian pensions funds who are interested
to invest in the Aramco IPO and we have also received
indications from our Russia-China fund of some Chinese major
institutions also interested," Kirill Dmitriev, head of the
Russian Direct Investment Fund, said on the sidelines of the
meeting.
In addition to deals announced on Tuesday, which include a
$120 million investment deal between the Saudi Arabian General
Investment Authority and BRF Brazil Foods, other agreements
include a memorandum of understanding between Samsung and Saudi
entertainment resort Qiddiya.
One attendee who declined to be named said that while FII
drew more participants this year, "the challenge is to see
whether people will continue to come going forward, especially
once the Aramco deal is out of the way".
REFORMS AND ROBOTS
Some foreign investors have been wary of ploughing money
into Saudi Arabia due to concern over its human rights record
and the commercial viability of some projects.
But attendees on Tuesday said the turnout was impressive and
reflected reforms to modernise the largest Arab economy.
Kushner and Modi lauded the kingdom's reform drive at
sessions attended by Crown Prince Mohammed, who has yet to
address the gathering.
Kushner urged regional leaders to make tough decisions to
secure investment, citing the economic portion of a U.S. Middle
East peace plan whose political dimension has not been revealed.
"If things were easy and obvious, they would have been done
a long time ago," he said in a panel discussion.
Jordan's King Abdullah said in a speech that investment in
the Middle East was a "good business opportunity" that would
empower a new generation.
Reinforcing a technology theme at the conference, SoftBank
Corp's humanoid robot Pepper greeted attendees. Boston Dynamics'
robot dog was on display along with a 3D interactive booth for
Saudi's planned Red Sea tourism.
Some Saudi women opted not to wear the traditional black
abaya covering this year, highlighting social reforms to open up
the conservative Muslim kingdom.
"The speed of the change has been phenomenal. We still have
a way to go but we have made tremendous improvement. Allowing
women to work in any field was tremendous," said billionaire
Saudi businesswomen Lubna Olayan.
JPMorgan's global banking head, Carlos Hernandez, said
Riyadh was on the right path in terms of capital markets reforms
to make its stock exchange more attractive to foreign investors.
"We're very encouraged that they're doing all the right
things on the path to be the major hub in the region," he said.
(Reporting by Saeed Azhar, Stephen Kalin, Rania El Gamal, Marwa
Rashad and Davide Barbuscia in Riyadh, with Hadeel El Sayegh in
Dubai
Writing by Maha El Dahan
Editing by Pravin Char and David Holmes)
