The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has achieved a qualitative achievement in the Doing Business Index 2020, issued by the World Bank Group. K.S.A. has advanced 30 ranks, to become the best country in the field of progress and reform among (190) countries around the world.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has succeeded in reducing the gap with the world's leading countries by 7.7 points, to become the highest among all member countries, as per the World Bank Index 2020.
This progress comes as a result of the various reforms implemented by the Kingdom, relevant to Rules, Regulations and Procedures, in cooperation with more than 50 government agencies, in addition to the private sector. These procedures have enhanced and strengthened the Kingdom's competitiveness and raised its rank in the World Indexes.
H.E. Dr. Majed bin Abdullah Al Qasabi, Minister of Commerce and Investment, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Competitiveness Center, explained that the Kingdom's progress in the World Bank Index 2020 for Doing Business is a confirmation of the reforms implemented by K.S.A. to improve the business environment in the Kingdom and enhance its competitiveness to improve its ranking in the World Indexes. H.E. Dr. Al Qasabi pointed out that the Kingdom is currently one of the most prominent investment destinations in the world.
His Excellency stressed that the achievements made in a short period of time is only the beginning of a more prosperous and successful phase. All efforts and endeavors are in progress for the realization of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, so that the Kingdom may become among the 10 most competitive countries in the world.
For his part, the founder of the World Bank Index for Doing Business, Senior Research Director at the World Bank Group, Dr. Simeon Yankov, said that the rapid progress made by Saudi Arabia, relevant to improving the business environment during the past year, confirms its determination to support entrepreneurship and the private sector to have a prosperous and vital economy.
The reforms implemented by the Kingdom to improve the business environment include facilitating and automating the procedures for starting-up business, also reducing and automating the procedures for issuing building licenses through "Baladi Platform", in addition to facilitating the procedures of Cross-Border Trade, by reducing the time of container clearance at the sea ports to 24 hours, also allowing to be cleared before the arrival of the ships to the harbor, in addition to launching the clearance portal "Fasih".
Regarding the enforcement of contracts in commercial cases, the Kingdom has implemented a number of procedures that have contributed to speeding up the process of enforcing contracts, such as allowing raising lawsuits, making enrollment, referral, notification, online judgments, also reducing the duration of enforcement in commercial cases, and limiting the number of sessions adjourned to 3 times max.
It is worth mentioning that the World Bank Index for Doing Business, which was established in 2002, makes performance assessment for 190 countries, relevant to 10 indicators.