With every country comes a list of misconceptions and myths that speak far from reality.
Unfortunately KSA , has been one of top most countries which are completely misunderstood and untapped.
In Fact most of the people who are doing business, carry opinions, write columns in media or willing to do business in KSA have never visited the country.
The Kingdom’s market size presents a tremendous opportunity for the investors.
Here are the top 3 reasons you should have a physical presence of your business in KSA:-
1) Ease of doing business:
According to the latest report of World’s Bank Doing Business Report 2020, the Kingdom climbed to 62nd place, from 92nd last year. Saudi Arabia was the world’s most improved country in the annual ranking of the “ease of doing business” amongst the 190 countries.
“It is a year of records for economies in the Middle East and North Africa, and we are committed to continuing our support to all countries in the region,” said Ferid Belhaj, World Bank regional vice president for the Middle East and North Africa.
What does this mean for your business?
This means setting up of businesses has become far easier than it was before and the new rules address lot of challenges to smoothen “entry barriers” – these include introduction of insolvency laws, possibility of setting up a 100% foreign ownership firm, simplifying company registration procedures and many more.
2) Tourism
Until few months back, the country’s only tourism relied exclusively on religious pilgrims.
But under Kingdom’s Vision 2030 agenda include increasing the economic contribution of tourism from a current 3% to 10% of GDP by 2030 and bringing international and domestic visits to 100 million annually by the same time.
In September 2019, KSA announced ease of issuance of tourist visas for 49+ nationalities and this was further enhanced by a new announcement in October 2019 that KSA will allow locals and expats to host people under their personal sponsorship for 90 days tourist visa.
The above initiatives are widely supported from the government by launching impressive campaign, #WelcomeToArabia, inviting visitors to the Kingdom.
What does this mean for your business?
More people visiting means more opportunities for businesses operating in the country.
3) Aggressive Government-backed vision 2030:
Saudi Arabia’s announcement of Vision 2030 in 2016 as a package of economic and social reforms designed to diversify the economy away from oil, attract foreign capital, and create jobs for citizens was positively received, but most of the business community had no idea how it will be implemented.
Almost 3 years after the announcement, the KSA government has successfully introduced range of regulations and initiatives, including the permanent residency plans, which indicate the seriousness of the leadership towards their vision.
Are you still waiting for another reason to open your doors in KSA?
About the Author:
Call me an optimist but working closely with key decision makers in the GCC for more than 15 years and being in the region for 36 years ( by birth ) , I can say with lot of confidence that the region has lot of untapped opportunities.
I consult and work closely with the leading MNCs, Advertising agencies and senior marketing executives in the region and have successfully assisted companies in KSA, UAE and Qatar from scratch to generating multi-million dollars.
Lets connect: www.linkedin.com/in/zeeshansamin
