During its participation in the Eastern Province Economic Forum, which concluded last Thursday, the General Investment Authority affirmed that creating a secure and stimulating investment environment for the private sector and providing the necessary safeguards to protect rights are among its top priorities, noting the remarkable progress the Kingdom has made in protecting minority shareholders, as it jumped from 63rd to 10th place globally in the 2018 Ease of Doing Business Report recently released by the World Bank Group.
279 Recommendations to Boost Competitiveness
During the forum, Dr. Ayed bin Hadi Al-Otaibi, Deputy Governor of the General Investment Authority for Investment Environment Development, revealed that there are more than 279 recommendations to enhance the competitiveness of the investment environment in the Kingdom, which had previously been identified by the General Investment Authority and approved by the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, and are currently being addressed by the committee for implementation.
Al-Otaibi explained that the fundamental and extensive reforms the Kingdom has witnessed in its investment environment are the result of ongoing cooperation among all government agencies and within the framework of the Executive Committee’s efforts to improve business performance in the private sector and stimulate it “Taysir,” which comprises more than 22 government agencies involved in investment regulations and procedures, focuses on following up on the implementation of recommendations and decisions related to improving the investment climate in the Kingdom.
Al-Otaibi noted that the formation of the “Taysir” Committee and the official launch of its work in Safar of last year is in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, one of whose key pillars is building a strong, competitive economy in which business sector enterprises grow and prosper,
38 reforms by the Taysir Committee
The Deputy Governor of the General Investment Authority for Investment Environment Development stated, while discussing the most notable achievements of the “Taysir” in its first year, that the total number of reforms submitted this year to the World Bank team tasked with preparing the Ease of Doing Business report amounted to 38, of which only 17 were accepted this year, while the adoption of the remaining reforms was postponed until next year to ensure their implementation on the ground and verify that a broad sector of businesses benefits from these reforms.
He also emphasized the importance of continuously developing the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms established by the “Taysir Committee” to verify the implementation of reforms on the ground, in cooperation and coordination with the private sector and its institutions, considering that an effective partnership between the public and private sectors is a key factor in creating a business environment that is friendly and conducive to investors and entrepreneurs.
Monitoring the challenges facing businesspeople
Al-Otaibi noted that the committee’s work is not limited to World Bank indicators, as its tasks include monitoring various indicators from other international reports related to the committee’s work and objectives, as well as monitoring the challenges and obstacles faced by local and foreign businesspeople and investors—whether identified by the Investment Authority or other relevant entities, including chambers of commerce—so that they can be studied and solutions and recommendations can be provided, and subsequently submitting them to the Council of Economic and Development Affairs for approval,
The committee, chaired by the Minister of Commerce and Investment, Dr. Majid Al-Qasabi, also submits a monthly report to the Council on the status of the recommendations as they arise, highlighting the main obstacles that may delay the implementation of some of them and how to overcome and surmount those obstacles.
Improvement in the Ease of Doing Business Index
The Deputy Governor of the Authority said: “The institutional and systematic approach adopted by the “Taysir” Committee and the follow-up mechanisms by the Council of Economic and Development Affairs have led to the integration and synergy of efforts to accelerate the pace of development and improvement, and have generated remarkable momentum in terms of the number of reforms achieved and their comprehensiveness.
The technical team overseeing the preparation of the 2018 Ease of Doing Business Index conducted several visits to the Kingdom this year, and conducted field surveys to identify the types of reforms introduced by the Kingdom and measure the impact of these reforms on the business sector according to established criteria and methodology prior to their approval and adoption. The Kingdom was ranked among the top 20 countries worldwide that have introduced reforms in their business environment, and second among G20 countries, thereby recording its best performance in the Ease of Doing Business Index compared to previous years.
