RIYADH, April 6, 2018 — As part of the government’s objective in making Saudi Arabia a more business-friendly country, a new initiative has been launched to make it possible for businesses to be registered within a day. The 12 reform initiatives are aimed at modernizing the process of the Kingdom’s administrative procedures enabling both investor and business owners to start a business within one day.
The Ministry of Commerce and Investment has announced these reform initiatives are within the framework of the on-going modernization and improvements of the trade services, through process re-engineering and integrated electronic systems. The new changes have been implemented to ease processes to help facilitate registration of businesses via an online system. The system allows investors and business owners to issue and obtain all necessary documents to start their businesses completely online, and without the need of physical visits to any government agency.
12 reform initiatives for starting a business are now integrated and can be done simultaneously in one step. The new online service allows investors to search and book his or her trade name, fill-in company Articles of Association details, add partners and shares without the need of attestation by a Notary Public using electronic authentication. Additionally, the online service allows business owners to pay government fees online, and obtain Commercial Registration (CR) along with the company’s Article of Association in printable format.
The Kingdom’s online service is a new technology in facilitating the delivery of a range of business start-up services for a more expeditious and legally sound incorporation. The government has developed these new initiatives by linking all procedures through a single online interface.
Using the newly launched integrated online platform investors can avail all the services simultaneously. The requirement of a company seal has also been removed. Therefore, the reforms undertaken by the Ministry of Commerce and Investment will help in reducing the procedures for starting a business in Saudi Arabia and provide Ease of Doing Business.
As soon as the CR is provided, investors will be issued a temporary company license code allowing immediate registration with the Ministry of Labor, Social Insurance “GOSI”, Zakat and Income Tax “GAZIT”, and enroll in the Chamber of Commerce. The online system also allows issuance of the Municipality License along with Commercial Registration, and to identifying your business location along with a free subscription to the government mailing service “Wasel” for the first year.
“As a result, the government’s streamlining of transmission of applications tackle various circumscriptions to doing business inside the Kingdom and the process will become a model in enhancing business activity by virtue of simplification,” the ministry said in a statement.
In parallel, the government of Saudi Arabia has supported new businesses financially by subsidizing government costs, where it had allocated SAR 7 billion riyals in recovering government fees during their first three years of the company’s continuance, and made the registration for this subsidy online. In addition, the government has equally enabled all doing business procedures reforms for both genders, and therefore business-women can start their business without their family’s consent.
It is worth mentioning, recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken practical measures in developing and promoting the commerce and investment sectors. For this purpose, a Ministerial Committee was formed with members of more than 38 government agencies and chaired by the Minister of Commerce and Investment, Dr. Majid Al-Qassabi.
This committee meets on weekly basis and focuses on improving the business environment, improving government services, and stimulating the private sector through analyzing and re-engineering the government procedures and services.
