World Bank: Saudi Arabia Offers Competitive Incentives for Investment, Trade

Business

October 28th, 10:22am

Riyadh - Fatehelrahman Yousif

A night view of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (SPA)

Saudi Arabia is putting forth competitive incentives for investment and trade, a senior World Bank official confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat. He also predicted that the government will have more reform underway for 2020, which will help create an even better investment environment. Founder of the World Bank Index for Doing Business, Senior Research Director at the World Bank Group, Dr. Simeon Yankov said that the rapid progress made by Saudi Arabia relevant to improving the business environment during the past year, confirms its determination to support entrepreneurship and the private sector to have a prosperous and vital economy. Speaking on future reforms, Yankov said: “The Saudi government is working hard, and wants to translate this into reality. It is involved in this work, and knows exactly what to do.” The reforms implemented by the Kingdom to improve the business environment include facilitating and automating the procedures for starting-up business, in addition to facilitating the procedures of cross-border trade. Regarding the enforcement of contracts in commercial cases, the Kingdom has implemented a number of procedures that have contributed to speeding up the process of enforcing contracts. “We see progress and improvement in the Saudi work environment, and we will be able to see more in the coming years. Bankruptcy regulations exist in all countries of the world, but the private sector now has the opportunity to comment on the performance of the government in all transparency and integrity,” Yankov told Asharq Al-Awsat. “There are real changes we have seen on the ground in Saudi Arabia that also included local and foreign companies and investors,” he added. “The Bank (World Bank) has very high standards for quality assurance, which is why we are celebrating these successes and new reforms in all sectors,” he remarked. The World Bank Index for Doing Business, which was established in 2002, makes performance assessment for 190 countries, relevant to 10 indicators. Saudi Arabia has achieved a qualitative achievement in the Doing Business Index 2020. The Kingdom has advanced 30 ranks, to become the best country in the field of progress and reform among 190 countries around the world.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1964946/world-bank-saudi-arabia-offers-competitive-incentives-investment-trade