Yesterday, "Tayseer" announces a series of reforms supporting the private sector's activity during a workshop that was held in Asharqia Chamber. The Business Facilitation Committee "Tayseer" revealed the details of its reforming steps aimed at empowering the private sector, raising the level of its contribution to the national economy, and overcoming the difficulties that encounter it in this regard.
A workshop entitled, "The most significant reforms that serve the investors," was held on Sunday 21st January 2018 in cooperation with the Council of Saudi Chambers. During this workshop, Iman al-Mutairi, the committee's chair, mentioned that the Committee is comprised of 39 governmental institutions that seek to achieve a specific task that to help in the empowerment and the development of the private sector. So, they are always seeking to take the private sector's views by following various means of communication with different representatives of this sector. She stressed that this committee, which is headed by His Excellency the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Majid Al-Qasabi, monitors initiatives and challenges and analyzes the views. Therefore, the main aim here is to improve the business environment. She also said that, "the committee is working with the private sector to develop its activity, so we have 19 subcommittees, and the future will witness more sub-committees, and in each committee we have representatives of the private sector."
Ziad Al-Juhayman said that the goals of "Tayseer Committee" are in correspond with the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030. So that its objectives are to implement high orders and directives aimed at improving the business environment and stimulating the private sector, and providing periodic analysis of the procedures and the services of government agencies and increase their effectiveness. Also, its goal stresses the idea of making the Kingdom one of the best in the world in the ease of doing business, and increasing the effectiveness of communication with the private sector through their involvement in decision-making and legislation. He emphasizes that the objectives of the Committee are consistent with the objectives of the Kingdom's vision of increasing foreign direct investment, from 3.8% to 5.7%, raising the contribution of the private sector to the domestic production from 40% to 65%, and raising the level of contribution of small and medium enterprises from 20% To 35%. He pointed out that "Tayseer Committee," which emanates from 19 subcommittees, meets every Wednesday of each week at the General Authority for Investment in order to examine and study the developments, collect notes and study them, and work on their implementation through the 39 governmental agencies that are participating in the committee. Also, he stressed out that the Committee is keen to make the private sector a key partner in decision-making.
According to Riyan Al-Sunaidi, who works in the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises, the reforms carried out by the Authority are subject to the follow-up of "Tayseer Committee" following the Royal Decree to implement the private sector incentive plan of SR 72 billion. Therefore, the Authority adopts a number of initiatives: including the initiative to activate the sponsorship program and raise its capital to 800 million riyals. The program will expand beyond the central regions (Riyadh, Jeddah, Sharqia) to other regions in the Kingdom. As well as activating and supporting the indirect lending program initiative where these companies lend to small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, the bold capital fund initiative that aimed at emerging companies.
Sami Al-Olayan, who works for of Capital Market Authority, spoke of the parallel market adopted by the Authority as an additional source of financing for companies and increasing its capital with more flexible offering and listing requirements. Thus, it gives room for small and medium-sized companies to benefit from additional sources of finance. In addition, Rashed Al-Fawzan, who works in the Ministry of Commerce and Investment, talked about the procedures and reforms adopted by Tayseer Committee and implemented by the Ministry in the fields of import and export in order to reduce the requirements, e.g., the reduction of the import documents from 12 documents to two documents and the export documents from 9 documents to two documents, and facilitate procedures such as providing data electronically and providing pre-clearance service for trucks.
Moreover, Mohammed Al-Qahtani (from the Ministry of Commerce and Investment) talked about transparency and the involvement of the private sector. He mentioned that all regulations are presented on the Ministry's website and on the website of the National Center for Documentation and Archives, and all engineering and operational contracts are also displayed on the website translated into English and French languages. He also stated that the Supreme orders required that any government agencies want to issue a resolution or a system should be presented on their websites before approving it in order to allow all the interested/concerned parties to give their opinions/decisions about any matters.
Abdulrahman Al-hoaimel, from the Ministry of Education, emphasizes the idea that the Ministry of Education has adopted 108 initiatives to achieve quality in education in all regions of the Kingdom with a view to transforming into a knowledgeable society. The Ministry could achieve this goal by increasing the interest of primary students and raising the level of enrollment from 97% to 99% and focusing more on science and mathematics. Therefore, the Ministry has reviewed the requirements and procedures for the establishment of specialized foreign universities and branches of recognized foreign universities, colleges and foreign training institutes.
So as to expand in the areas of training, which are not limited to language or personal skills, that includes everything such as management training, and health and financial activities, etc. The Ministry is also focusing on increasing reliance on digital methods in the curricula of the public schools, and providing additional incentives for enterprises with added value to the economy to move toward innovation, research and development.
In addition, Musab Al-Sheikh (from the Capital Market Authority) said that the Authority, within the framework of its objective to protect the investor, decided to establish an investor protection department, and launch an application to accept complaints and communications through it. It also approved the application of the International Accounting and Auditing Standards, the establishment of an organizational entity to control the audit offices of listed financial statements on the Financial Market, and updating the corporate governance regulations issued by the Capital Market Authority, and others.
According to Marwan Malibari, who works in the Ministry of Justice, the judicial development is part of supporting the environment of the local investment. Therefore, the ministry has approved the establishment of courts dealing with commercial disputes, the establishment of Antimonopoly Competition Disputes Unit, the launch of the Saudi Arbitration Center in Riyadh, and the issuance of the new bankruptcy system. He clarified that for transparency, judgments issued in commercial cases, statistics showing the stages and duration of commercial litigation, and the final judgment are published directly on the ministry website.
Walid al-Kalash talked about the efficiency of the labor market and stressed the integration of the efforts of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, the Human Resources Development Fund, the Ministry of Education and the General Organization for Vocational and Technical Training to provide manpower according to the needs of the market. He also stressed the keenness of the ministry to provide incentives to support the resettlement of employment in the private sector. He referred to the Saudization document aimed at setting all the programs targeted by the ministry to 2023 so that no programs will be added during this period to enable the private sector to arrange their positions in proportion to these programs.
Additionally, Shehadeh Al-Issa (from the Capital Market Authority) stressed the importance of the Authority to protect the investor and the use of modern technology to receive complaints and communications and provide standard treatment, and increase the legal provisions in the list of corporate governance to ensure the rights of investors. All these procedure reflected on the status of the Saudi financial market, which reached the 10th ranking in the world in the field of investor protection, after it was at 63rd. She also mentioned that the number of companies in the financial market increased from 176 companies to 188 companies.
