Business Expansion in Saudi Market Reflected in Issuance of More than 1.4 Million Commercial Registers

The Saudi Business Center facilitates the procedures for starting, conducting, and terminating economic businesses, as well as providing all related services. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Saudi Business Center facilitates the procedures for starting, conducting, and terminating economic businesses, as well as providing all related services. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Business Expansion in Saudi Market Reflected in Issuance of More than 1.4 Million Commercial Registers

The Saudi Business Center facilitates the procedures for starting, conducting, and terminating economic businesses, as well as providing all related services. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Saudi Business Center facilitates the procedures for starting, conducting, and terminating economic businesses, as well as providing all related services. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The number of existing commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia now exceeds 1.4 million after it achieved a 59 percent jump during the first quarter of 2024 by about 104,000 records, compared to 65,300 records in the same period last year.
Women accounted for 44 percent of the new commercial registers, which clearly indicates the expansion of women’s access to the labor market.
According to a recent report issued by the Ministry of Commerce, a copy of which was obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, three regions topped the list in terms of the number of registers issued in the first three months of 2024, namely: Riyadh (39,800 records), Makkah (19,800), and the Eastern Province region (15,200).
The report also revealed that institutions dominate the volume of commercial registers in the Kingdom, with a number exceeding 1.159 million.
The report discussed the extent of development in the promising sectors in Vision 2030, and highlighted the growth of commercial registers in the technical sectors that deal with application development, electronic games, and delivery services via electronic platforms, in addition to activities related to the entertainment and tourism sectors, and the business incubators and accelerators.
The volume of existing e-commerce registers grew by 17 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2024, with 38,800 registers, according to the report, which highlighted the importance of strengthening the e-commerce business system as one of the goals of the National Transformation Program.
The report pointed to an increase in existing registers for the electronic games development sector, which reached around 4,300 during the first quarter of 2024, compared to 2,700 during the same period last year, which means an increase of 59 percent.
As for research and development in biotechnology sciences, the report says that the number of registers during the first three months of this year exceeded one thousand, compared to 594 records in the same period last year.

 

 



Egypt Approves $91 Billion Budget for 2025/26

 The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Egypt Approves $91 Billion Budget for 2025/26

 The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Egypt's cabinet approved a 4.6 trillion Egyptian pound ($91 billion) draft state budget for the financial year that will begin in July, a government statement said on Wednesday, as it continues to tighten its finances under an IMF program.

Expenditures will rise by 18% and revenue by 19% over the current 2024/25 budget. Revenue is expected to hit 3.1 trillion pounds, working out to a deficit of about 1.5 trillion pounds ($30 billion).

The increased expenditure partly reflects elevated headline inflation, which was running at an annual 12.8% in February.

Financial reforms under an $8 billion financial reform program signed in March 2024 with the International Monetary Fund have helped Egypt bring inflation down from a peak of 38% in September 2023.

The IMF this month approved the disbursement of $1.2 billion to Egypt after its fourth review of the program.

The new budget targets a primary surplus of 795 billion pounds, equal to 4% of GDP, up from the 3.5% primary surplus originally targeted in the 2024/25 budget.

The IMF granted the government a waiver in the fourth review after the surplus came in 0.5% of GDP lower than Egypt's earlier commitment.

In its third review in June, the IMF praised Egypt for its "strict control of spending".

The new budget also lowers public debt to 82.9% of GDP from an expected 92% in 2024/25, the cabinet statement said.

The cabinet said 732.6 billion pounds in spending in the new budget would be allocated for subsidies, grants and social benefits, an increase of 15.2%.

The budget increases commodities and bread subsidies by 20% to 160 billion pounds. It will also include 75 billion pounds to subsidize petroleum products, 75 billion pounds to subsidize electricity and 3.5 billion pounds to subsidize natural gas deliveries to households, the statement added.