Saudi Arabia jumped a whopping 30 places in the annual World Bank ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report for 2020, a survey of business efficiency in 190 countries, and was the top reforming country in the study this year.
The Kingdom’s ranking at 62nd in the world is the highest ranking since the bank launched its “Doing Business” survey 20 years ago.
Progress across the board for the Kingdom’s Ease of Doing Business ranking in 2020.
The World Bank noted that Saudi Arabia carried out “a record number of business reforms in the past year, earning the country a spot in this year’s top 10 global business climate improvers.” Saudi Arabia implemented reforms in eight Doing Business areas, its busiest activity since the launch of the study.
“Saudi Arabia’s impressive reforms in doing business this year show its commitment to fulfilling a main pillar of its National Vision 2030: a thriving economy,” said Issam Abousleiman, World Bank Regional Director of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “Easing the business climate for local entrepreneurs to thrive as well as foreign investors to work in the Kingdom shows a forward path to creating more jobs for Saudi youth and women, and creating sustainable, inclusive growth.”
Saudi Arabia made the greatest strides in the area of starting a business, according to the World Bank. “It now costs only 5.4% of income per capita for an entrepreneur to start a business, which is lower than the Middle East and North Africa regional average of 16.7%. Saudi Arabia has made substantial reductions over time to minimum capital requirements, cutting them from a cost of over 1,000% of income per capita in 2004 to zero…Thanks to a reform improving the protection of minority investors, Saudi Arabia now ranks third globally on this indicator and performs as well as New Zealand and Singapore, the two easiest places to do business in the world. The country also performs well in the areas of registering property, where it ranks 19th, and dealing with construction permits, where it sits 28th,” the Bank noted in a release.
“Today, Saudi Arabia is celebrating,” Commerce and Investment Minister Majid Al-Qasabi said at the launch of the report in Riyadh, according to Arab News. “And it is the outcome of tremendous efforts since the launch of Vision 2030.”
[Click here to see Saudi Arabia’s country page on the Ease of Doing Business website]
