Saudi launches new service allowing investors to start a business from outside the kingdom

Saudi Arabia has launched a new service that will allow investors and companies to establish and start a business in the kingdom from outside the country.

The service, announced by the Ministry of Investment in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce, is aimed at supporting companies and investors to receive investment licences “quickly and easily”, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Under the new service, investors can complete the process of authenticating the agency and attesting the establishment contract in three steps.

First, they need to visit the website of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and apply for “adding a request for attestation of a contract” at the kingdom’s missions abroad.

The second step requires the investors to visit the electronic services portal on the Ministry of Investment’s website where they can apply for the licence issuance.

For the third step, the investor will need to authenticate the establishment contract of the business and issue the commercial register on the website of the Ministry of Commerce website.

The new service, which was inaugurated in a number of the kingdom’s embassies, will bring about “fundamental changes in the investor’s journey and facilitate the establishment of foreign companies’ businesses”, the Ministry of Investment said.

It also stressed that the move will help overcome some of the obstacles they faced in the past, such as the need for companies to visit the kingdom to document incorporation contracts along with numerous documents, the redundancy of requests, and visits to various government agencies for verification – mainly since there was no electronic connectivity between the Ministry of Investment and the Ministries of Trade and Foreign Affairs.

The ministry added that there will be a broad marketing campaign in several languages to ensure that the largest possible segment of foreign investors and companies can benefit from the new service.

The new step is part of the kingdom’s reforms implemented to improve the ease of doing business in the country.