Othman highlighted that the local and foreign projects established in the Kingdom can benefit of energy and land with very reasonable prices and access to concessional financing from several government funds to support investment projects and to provide financial support in exchange for training and employment of the Saudi nationals. Regarding the foreign companies, including the Russian leading companies, Al-Othman said that the foreign companies are allowed of ownership with 100% in all sectors, with the exceptions of some sectors which require presence of a local partner, including sectors of financial services, telecommunications, professional advisory services and wholesale and retail with no imposing income tax, value-added tax, sales tax or property tax with presence of a tax competition rate on the companies' profits with 20% of the profits. He stressed that that the Kingdom is witnessing a huge economic activity and comprehensive development in all regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, pointing out that the foreign investment in the Kingdom reached $208 billion. Eng. Al-Othman said that these investments were concentrated in the energy, petrochemical and construction sectors, "the Kingdom seeks to double the size of these investments by taking advantage of growth in new sectors such as health, transport, tourism, information technology and many other promising sectors," he added.
