500 licenses were revoked from foreign investors in 2009 following inspections of their activities, an official from the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) has said. The Eastern Province Director of Service Centers at SAGIA, Muhammad Al-Khars, told the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Dammam Tuesday that the 500 licenses were withdrawn by the authority due to “failures to comply with licensing conditions”, without providing further details. Al-Khars said, however, that he expected a further 1,000 licenses to be revoked in 2010. Speaking at a monthly gathering at the Eastern Province Chamber, Al-Khars said that foreign investors were first permitted to engage in business activity in 2006 when as part of the first stage they were allowed to own 51 percent of a commercial operation. A second phase of the move brought in later saw that figure rise to 75 percent. Since the move was permitted SAGIA has granted 8,000 licenses for business with foreign owners. In 2008 SAGIA submitted proposals to the Supreme Economic Council for the amendment to some regulations governing foreign investors, such as requiring them to own companies already operational in their home countries for a minimum of two years prior to obtaining a license in the Kingdom, and having liquid assets no less than SR250, 000. Investors should, the proposals said, also be required to apply for licenses from outside the Kingdom.Al-Khars said that SAGIA had reduced the capital required for foreign investment from SR2 million to SR100, 000. “The capital required from limited liability companies is only SR10,000,” he added. Al-Khars noted that foreign investors were proving beneficial for efforts towards Saudization. “A recent study from the Ministry of Labor shows that the rate of Saudi employees in foreign investment businesses is double the one in local companies,” he said. Al-Khars said that licensed foreign companies receive equal treatment to their Saudi counterparts and that both were required to adhere to the same regulations, “including laws on pollution”. As for investing in education projects, Al-Khars said that foreigners were only permitted to become involved in post-high school education school and required approval from the relevant authorities like the Vocational and Technical Training Corporation and the Ministry of Higher Education. “SAGIA prefers to give bodies like those a role in order to assess investments in their fields of authority,” he said, adding that advertisement is the only media business activity permitted to foreigners. Speaking on SAGIA's recently-launched “60 Minutes, 24 Hours a day, 7 Days a Week” scheme - “60-24-7” - Al-Khars described it as an “ambitious program to process transactions within one hour, one day or one week, depending on the type of transaction required”. “It will be put into effect gradually through stages, starting with transactions for industrial cities prior to being introduced for the main cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam,” he said. “The vision of SAGIA is to attract enough investment to achieve rapid and continuous economic growth by exploiting the Kingdom's strengths in being the world's most important source of energy and a primary link between east and west. We want to put the country in the world's top 10 for investment environments,” Al
