RIYADH — The Ministry of Commerce and Investment has said it has been working to determine the priorities of the executive plan for the national program to combat business cover-up or "tasattur", where expats run businesses in the name of Saudis. The ministry said it was also reviewing the system for applying technical solutions and developing specifications for commercial outlets. The program includes developing and updating infrastructure, creating a new mechanism for financing and incentives to encourage small and medium scale investments in the retail sector. It also includes supporting the franchise system, review of existing commercial regulations, especially for non-Saudi ownership. The initiative is expected to help increase growth rate in many sectors and limit the phenomenon of cover-up while creating jobs for Saudis. This will also result in the availability of better services and products at competitive prices, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported. Abdul Salam Al-Manaa, undersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Investment, said the ministry submitted a comprehensive program to the related authorities to combat tasattur. The program will be supervised by many government departments, Al-Manaa said, adding that if implemented the program will reduce instances of business cover-up to a great extent. Al-Manaa described business cover-up as a cancer that eats into the national economy. He said, "It is a cancer and we need to investigate the causes behind it. This program if launched will limit their number and they will be confused and ashamed of what they were doing." In related news, the ministry conducted 21,692 field inspections on different establishments in many areas of the Kingdom to rule out the existence of cover-up operations. The total number of cover-up cases transferred by the ministry to the Public Prosecution for legal action reached 1,195 cases in 1439 AH, which was an increase of 53 percent compared to the previous year. The ministry placed 20 advertisements in newspapers to defame people convicted of commercial cover-up at their own expense. The ministry said it was strictly monitoring commercial activities in all sectors around the Kingdom through routine field inspections and quickly respond to information sent by the members of the public on suspected cover-up operations.
