JEDDAH — The Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs is studying issuing temporary licenses by which one commercial stop can operate two different activities in a commercial centers. Meanwhile, Ibrahim Abdullah, head of the Information Center at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, told Saudi Gazette that they will start issuing online licenses for 170 investment activities located on areas that are less than 150 square meters. Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with investors at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said the online license is printable, valid immediately and it will be investigated by officials from the ministry on the ground within a week of its issuance. The activities included in this action will be those not related to food and medicine since such businesses need to commit to more regulations from different government bodies. He added that they are now working on creating complaint committees at all municipalities that will look into individual cases of investors. He added that these committees shall consider each case within 10 days. Abdul Aziz Al-Omran, head of the license department at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, said they have worked on a unified guide that has 500 investment activities which can operate in the Kingdom and which regulations can be finalized by 16 municipalities in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Commerce. All regulations, he added, are specified online. Their main aim is to unify, simplify regulations and reduce delays, he added. Talal Samarqandi, owner of an engineering office, called for the creation of a database for investment activities, and not issue licenses to the same activity for different investors at close locations. This is crucial in order to improve the investment environment in the Kingdom, he noted. Similarly, Mohammad Alawi, head of Commercial Centers Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said one concern is the absence of zoning strategy where one housing area can be transformed into an investment area. Furthermore, Alawi called for unifying regulations in different government bodies to encourage investment.
