Investment licenses are increasing steadily in Saudi Arabia, highlighting the Kingdom’s attractiveness as a destination that offers investors qualitative opportunities in a wide range of sectors.
Saudi Arabia issued more than 1,600 foreign investment licenses in the first quarter of 2023, an average of 25 licenses per day.
A recent report issued by Invest in Saudi Arabia, one of the initiatives of Vision 2030, showed that more than 1,600 foreign investment licenses were issued in the first quarter of this year, compared to 1,300 licenses in the last quarter of 2022, marking an increase of 2.3 percent.
The report expected the building and construction sector to continue to provide major opportunities for investors, in view of the giant and huge projects within the Kingdom’s development plans, especially in tourism and housing.
Construction topped the licenses granted in the first quarter of this year with 419, followed by manufacturing industries (345 licenses), and professional, scientific and technical activities (165), while the rest of the licenses was distributed to other sectors.
Foreign direct investment in Saudi Arabia during the first quarter of 2023 witnessed a year-on-year growth of 10.2 percent to reach SAR 8.1 billion ($2.1 billion).
According to a previous report by the Ministry of Investment, the Saudi government completed 104 investment deals during the first quarter of 2023, compared to 101 during the same period last year, registering an increase of about 3 percent.
The Kingdom's foreign direct investment balance also witnessed an increase of 0.7 percent during the fourth quarter of 2022 on a quarterly basis, recording more than one trillion riyals ($266 billion), which points to the effectiveness of efforts towards enhancing investment attractiveness, by developing the environment and providing incentives to investors.
