The Ministry of Trade and Investment is seeking to develop trade, investment and consumer protection regulations to provide a stimulating environment for investment, besides proposing advanced systems and laws to serve the National Economy. In this context comes the initiative of "Developing the Rules & Regulations of the Ministry" as one of the Ministry's initiatives within the National Transformation Program 2020.
Notably, MCI has completed 12 R&R so far, the most important are: The Corporate Law, The Regulatory Controls for Joint Stock Companies, The Regulatory Regulation for Saudi-Foreign Business Councils, The Executive Regulations for Chambers of Commerce and industry. In addition, work is under way on the development of 30 proposals of Rules & Regulations in the areas of: Corporate, Trade and Investment, Consumer Protection, Free and Consultation Professions, Intellectual Property. This is part of the Ministry’s initiatives to develop and up-date the R&R for the relevant sectors, the most prominent ones are: Trading System, Resolving Insolvency, Commercial Mortgage, Trade Franchise System, E-Commerce System, Consumer Protection, Professional Firms, Free Professions and Corporate Law.
This initiative aims to facilitate doing business , also to reduce the procedures cost, as well as providing flexibility, transparency and stability of trading facilities, besides ensuring fair and honest practices of commercial transactions, in addition to providing a stimulating environment for the expansion of investment, giving special care for Small and Medium Enterprises for the development of their business and for maintaining a sustainable growth for this sector, through the development of diagnostic research and studies to investigate the challenges facing traders, investors and consumers, also to identify the available opportunities and the areas that need to be developed, besides studying the best practices, compared with the most developed countries. All that have been taken into consideration during the process of planning the appropriate trade policies for the Kingdom, bearing in mind the principle of transparency and the participation of all concerned parties for the preparation of laws and regulations, by opening permanent communication channels with the government and private bodies, as well as all those interested to take their opinions and views about the R&R proposals.
All these tasks are being achieved under the expertise, guidance and consultation of major international specialized offices, also through holding various workshops with the participation of specialists and experts.
Currently, the work is underway to develop an electronic platform to include all Rules and Regulations of the Ministry. All draft Rules & Regulations together with the relevant proposals could be presented and displayed for taking the opinions of the public through the said e-portal.