The Saudi Ministry of Commerce said that more than 95,000 commercial registers were issued during the fourth quarter of 2023, an increase of 23 percent year-on-year, bringing the total existing commercial registers by the end of the year to more than 1.4 million.
The Ministry of Commerce issued the Business Sector Bulletin for the fourth quarter of 2023 on Wednesday. The bulletin monitors the most important developments in the sector, as well as the growth of commercial registers.
The official data highlighted the importance of e-commerce, which represents a key tributary to the national economy. The number of commercial registers for this sector reached 37,400 records by the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, with a growth rate of 24 percent, on an annual basis.
Strengthening the e-commerce business system is one of the goals of the National Transformation Program within Vision 2030. Five regions topped the list in terms of e-commerce registrations. Those include Riyadh with 15,074 registrations, followed by Makkah at 9,529 and the Eastern Province at 6,011. On the other hand, Madinah issued 1,839 registers, followed by Qassim at 1,259.
The Ministry of Commerce said that the Kingdom was among the top 10 developing economies in e-commerce, raking 8th out of 152 countries, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) index.
The expected total revenues from e-commerce by 2025 is estimated at around SAR 260 billion ($69.3 billion), with a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent, according to the data, which also revealed that the value of venture investment in startups operating in online industry reached an estimated SAR 446 million in 2022.
The bulletin highlighted the most important economic activities in promising sectors related to the technology, entertainment, transportation, tourism, and others.
It pointed to growth in a number of activities, including cloud computing services, software publishing, resorts, land transportation of goods, sea clubs, and the manufacture of medical tools and equipment, which all provide the local and foreign business sector with opportunities for business development and expansion of partnerships.
For example, the number of registers for cloud computing services reached about 1,700 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to 1,200 registers in the same period in 2022, which means a growth of 40 percent.
With regard to visual arts activities, the number of existing commercial registrations by the end of the fourth quarter reached 822, achieving a growth rate of 103 percent, on an annual basis.
