His Excellency the Minister of Commerce and Investment, Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al Qassabi, extended his greetings and congratulations to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and to H. Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, on the 87th anniversary of the National Day of K.S.A.
H. E. said that the great anniversary is passing now and the improvement steps of the government system are accelerating to improve the legislative environment, business performance, system development, as well as to enhance technical and procedural integration, and to support the investment environment.
H.E. Dr. Al-Qasabi stressed the keenness of the trade and investment system to create a legal structure that stimulates and supports the trade and investment activities. Notably, MCI system has completed setting up the system of Insolvency, Commercial Mortgage, Franchise and E-Commerce system. These systems are now with the concerned departments for completing the necessary formal procedures before approving and issuing them.
H. E. Dr. Al Qasabi pointed out that the total foreign projects operating in the Kingdom have been raised to 7827 projects. Adding that the capital of licensed investment projects registered during the first half of 2017 increased by 130%, where 158 projects had been licensed with a total capital of 3.258 billion riyals, compared with 127 licenses with total capital of SR 1.392 billion during the first half of 2016. H.E. added that work is under way to facilitate and ease all procedures, and to review the relevant legislations to stimulate the investment environment.
The Business Performance Improvement Committee (PPEP), represented by different government agencies, has launched Meras E-Business Platform and the Consolidated Business Service Center with the participation of 16 government authorities to facilitate and ease starting business and to provide the needed services for investors in an integrated and easy way through a single online platform and under one roof. It is worth mentioning that the engineering procedures and the electronic linking among government agencies resulted in providing 5 electronic services in one step and in line with the issuance of the Commercial Registration. So the following services can easily be obtained together with the C.R. (Zakat and Income Subscription, Membership of Chamber of Commerce, Registration with the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, Registering with the Unified Enterprise Number 700, Registration with the General Organization for Social Insurance ).
MCI has also launched the Business Licensing Guide for trade activities, which contains in its first phase 274 trade and business activities, provided by 26 government agencies.
As part of the integration with government agencies to improve the business environment, relevant regulations were approved allowing foreign investors to visit Saudi Arabia and obtain business visit visas within 24 hours. It is also possible now to issue instant licenses for more than 200 business activities from the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, as well as issuing the instant license from Civil Defense for commercial institutions that meet the requested requirements.