Business & Money | Tuesday 27 February, 2018 7:10 am |

The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) on Monday extended the license period for foreign investment from the current one year to a renewable period of up to five years.

Investors also now have the option to reduce the minimum license period to just one year.

Ibrahim. S. Al-Suwayel, Deputy Governor for Investors’ Services and Consultancy, stated that the new rules were designed to promote competitiveness and attract foreign investment in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

He said the new procedures will accelerate SAGIA’s efforts to bring more investment to the Kingdom.

There has already been a positive effect on new investment following the recent regulation to reduce the time to issue business licenses from two days to just four hours, said Al-Suwayel.

The remarkable improvement was due to three initiatives: restructuring the processes, reducing the required documents, and the training and certifying of staff.

Earlier, eight documents were required to get an investment license, but now only two documents are required.