JEDDAH — Chairman of the Foreign Investors' Committee at Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Fuad Frank said the decisions of the Ministry of Labor, especially those related to Saudization and recruitment, are the biggest incentives to attract investment into the Kingdom and will not affect investments currently in the country. He said organizing the market and the exit of illegal shops will create an open market and good opportunities, whether for local or external investors. Frank, an American investor in the Kingdom, said, “Organization is every investor's goal. Previously, the market was crowded with ‘suitcase traders' and shops that violated business regulations. This deprived the legal shops from real opportunities to expand and spread. The common demand of foreign investments is the existence of organization in the market. The rectification decisions will enable the country to attract promising investments.” He added, “Most of the foreign investments enter the Saudi market with the full knowledge of the laws and regulations in the country, especially those regarding Saudization, an area in which the country has made big strides. They do not face major problems in Saudi Arabia. If there are any, they are limited to finding personnel. They are not refusing to Saudize jobs and train Saudi nationals. Examples of this are plenty in the contracting and restaurant sectors.” Frank expects the correction of residency status to catalyze inflow of investments, especially in the industrial cities and in new sectors such as technology and telecommunications, which the illegal workers were controlling and the country was not benefiting from. This is despite the incentives by the Saudi Arabian General Investments Authority (SAGIA) to attract investments to support the local economy and contribute to Saudization of jobs. Frank considered the ongoing revamp of the labor market as a real opportunity to rectify the investment environment in the Kingdom, which will in turn contribute to attracting large scale investments from abroad. He said foreign investors were far ahead in meeting Saudization targets with a ratio of 27 percent while at national companies the ratio is below 10 percent. This was even before the Ministry of Labor's decision making it compulsory to employ Saudi nationals and banning the employment of illegal workers. According to the latest statistics available, foreign investment in the Kingdom has reached to a value of SR552 billion.
