Special Report: Riyadh cuts red tape
Saudi Arabia has set its sights on becoming one of the 10 best countries in the world in which to do business by next year. The kingdom has worked hard to climb up the World Bank’s Doing Business league, rising 17 places to 16th since 2007.
Measures such as streamlining the process for setting up a business and eliminating the minimum capital requirement for new businesses have all contributed to Saudi Arabia’s much-improved ranking.
The report’s focus on regulations as they relate to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is key at a time when SMEs are being labelled as a potential engine for growth in the current economic environment.
But the Doing Business report is only a narrow measure of the state of the kingdom’s overall business environment. By focusing on the regulation of SMEs rather than large, listed corporations, the rankings do not take account of other important aspects in an investment environment, such as macro-economic stability and access to markets.
However, the bold decision by the government to go ahead with the kingdom’s multi-billion-dollar infrastructure spending plan in 2009, despite diminished oil revenues, is an indication that if the report did assess macroeconomic stability as well, Saudi Arabia would rank high among the world’s leading economies.
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