He stressed the issue of oversight, because we are in the stage of correction and correction, and one of its features is to support competitiveness and to combat previous mistakes such as covering up that violate competition. A corrective period was established in cooperation with several government agencies, and we have witnessed - praise be to God - positive results.
He stressed that the ministry supports the local investor and the local product, but this support does not contradict the opening of the market, and if we reach self-sufficiency in a particular product, then we can close the market. There is no development or growth without competition, and importing does not contradict support and localization at all.
He touched on the issue of the investment fund's entry into many projects to enhance confidence in investment, which is carried out in partnership with the private sector, and the full burden may have been shifted in the future, and the evidence for that is abundant.
As part of the meeting program, a visual presentation was presented by His Excellency the Undersecretary for Customer Service and Branches, Eng. Ayed Al-Ghwaim, and the Vice President of the National Competitiveness Center, Walid Al-Radian, during which many of the Ministry’s services aimed at facilitating procedures and developing the trade sector were presented, which includes developing and updating regulations and requirements, and facilitating trade procedures. and development of various systems.
Al-Ghuwainem said that the business sector in the Kingdom witnessed remarkable growth during the period from 2015 to 2020, as the number of institutions increased from (650,462 institutions) to (1,107,071 institutions), i.e. by 70%, while limited liability companies witnessed an increase of 1.3% during the period. The same from (78,415 companies) to (159,520 companies), and as for the closed joint-stock companies, they witnessed a growth of 43% to increase their number from (1,200 companies) to (1,725 companies). As for the growth of the business sector in the Eastern Province, it recorded a growth rate of 11.3 percent during the period from 2018 to the last year 2020, with about (201,492 commercial records) working for (166,420 institutions), and (35,072 companies).
He touched on several reforms carried out by the ministry aimed at strengthening the commercial legislation system, including the preparation and development of 62 legislation during the past five years, including several regulations and their executive regulations, including systems (electronic commerce, commercial franchise, professional companies, bankruptcy, anti-coverage, guarantee Movable property rights, accounting, and auditing profession, chambers of commerce). He pointed out that the results of legislative reforms appeared in shortening the time periods necessary for commercial work, which requires only one step after shortening 5 procedures, and issuing municipal licenses and work visas immediately upon issuance of the commercial register, and paying fees for establishing entities and licenses for shops electronically with a unified invoice. In addition, the establishment of companies takes place within 30 minutes instead of 15 days, because the checking of their articles of incorporation is done automatically.
He mentioned that one of the growth milestones in local trade is "electronic commerce", which is witnessing a global growth estimated at more than 16%, with transactions amounting to $4.28 trillion, as the number of online shoppers during the past year reached about 2.05 billion, according to World Bank statistics The Saudi market was not immune to this growth in this type of commercial activity, as it witnessed a growth of 28.3% with electronic commercial transactions amounting to 6.328 billion dollars, and the number of shoppers amounting to 25.6 million, as stated in the information of the General Authority for Statistics.
The presentation touched on the national anti-shopping program that was launched to unify efforts among the relevant authorities to eliminate the causes of commercial concealment and achieve sustainable growth. The program works with 15 government agencies on 47 initiatives under four strategic axes (money, workers, control, and requirements),
For his part, the Vice-President of the National Competitiveness Center Walid Al-Radyan spoke and initially touched on the launch of the National Competitiveness Center under Cabinet Resolution No. 212 dated 25/4/1440 aimed at improving and developing the competitive environment and improving the Kingdom’s ranking in global reports and indicators, and proposing plans aimed at raising the Kingdom’s competitiveness in Various fields, discussing them with government and private agencies concerned with developing them, identifying obstacles and challenges related to developing the competitive environment, providing visions and proposing necessary reforms in them, following up on the commitment of the concerned authorities to implement them, and monitoring and analyzing all indicators and reports that have an impact on the competitive environment in the Kingdom issued by organizations It is considered an internationally esteemed position, and to work to improve the Kingdom’s ranking in it, in cooperation with the relevant authorities, and to survey and monitor the opinions of the public through various means regarding the competitive environment in the Kingdom in various fields.
He reviewed some points related to communication with the private sector. They mentioned that during the past period, several regions of the Kingdom were visited with the participation of representatives of about 14 government agencies and 332 investors, and 100 challenges facing commercial activity in these regions were identified, including (Asir, Al-Jawf, Jazan, and Qassim). And Tabuk), according to which 70 recommendations and solution proposals were issued. Moreover, in 2019 the private sector’s visual platform was launched, through which challenges were identified and recommendations were proposed to address them. 436 recommendations were completed, to which is added the unified electronic platform for public opinion poll (poll) that was launched earlier this year and aims to enable government agencies and the public to express their views and observations on the projects of laws and regulations and the like. 83 government agencies participated, 158 projects were presented through the platform, and 65 reports summarized the most important views of the projects presented on the platform. And 93 projects are expected to be presented during the coming period, as 8 workshops were held on the performance of the platform and the services it provides, in the presence of a large number of interested people and representatives of government departments.
Accordingly, he touched upon the Saudi Business Center, which was established by Cabinet Resolution No. 456, dated 11/8/1440, and whose tasks include proposing the issuance of policies, regulations and decisions related to economic business, and expressing views on them, in line with international best practices, and establishing and managing platforms A unified electronic platform to provide services and businesses related to starting and practicing economic business and linking them to all relevant government agencies, re-engineering procedures and developing the investor’s journey in a number of economic sectors, and issuing economic licenses through unified spatial centers and the unified invoice issued by the Center for the start and practice of economic business so that it includes all related financial requirements, developing a business intelligence unit to issue commercial and economic reports, launching the consolidated register of commercial mortgages and implementing the procedures associated with it in accordance with the commercial mortgage system. It is noteworthy that the center has main centers in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam, and participatory centers in Qassim, Asir, and Dammam.
After the presentation, the services provided by the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises, which in turn is affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce, were reviewed, which include educational, advisory, and financing services and services for the growth of enterprises. 399 million riyals, 2538 investors received support from the authority’s Kafalah program at a value of 9 billion riyals, 305 enterprises benefited with a value of 605 million riyals from the financing portal, and 414 beneficiaries from direct lending, receiving 412 million riyals, and 4303 consultations were provided through the Nawafed application, And 1463 institutions benefited from the Monshaat Academy, and 102 institutions benefited from the Mazaya Program. All this in the eastern region only.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Asharqia Chamber, Abdul Hakim bin Hamad Al-Ammar Al-Khalidi, said during the meeting that our wise government had set out in its future vision for the private sector from several legislative, regulatory, and developmental foundations, its first goal is to improve the private sector and reformulate it in a better way, within a strategic direction. It aims to be one of the main pillars of development in the country, which is what is involved in the policies that we feel the positive results of day after day, so it approved programs and launched initiatives and opened doors for investment in various fields, and removed the obstacles that limit him from playing a greater role in development, and continues to develop what Legislation and procedures related to markets and businesses, all of this and others, are allotted to him to encourage him to innovate and compete. This meeting between representatives of the government sector and businessmen of the region under the umbrella of the Asharqia Chamber is evidence that we are moving forward in achieving a construction based on communication and dialogue as the pillars of its sustainability Looking forward to the ambitious programs and initiatives proposed by the Ministry of Commerce, that this meeting will result in significant recommendations that are part of our national options towards achieving balanced and sustainable development.
