60 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / August 2019MONEY ECON
THE LEVEL OF COMPETITION FOR CONSUMER’S ATTENTION HAS REACHED LEVELS SIMILAR TO THOSE
OF DEVELOPED MARKETS. IN PARALLEL, WE HAVE SEEN THE MASSIVE DISRUPTION OF E-COMMERCE,
AS WELL AS A SLOWDOWN OR RETRENCHMENT IN EXPAT IMMIGRATION.HAVING BEEN A CATCHWORD FOR MORE THAN
FIVE YEARS, EXPO 2020 WILL BE A REALITY
FROM OCTOBER 20, 2020 TO APRIL 10, 2021,
BRINGING 25 MILLION VISITORS TO THE UAE,
WITH AN ESTIMATED $23.4 BILLION TO BE
ADDED TO THE UAE’S GDP.
There is a very broad economic reform on-
going across our region. I have listed here
a far from exhaustive list of some of the
most remarkable measures the govern-
ments are taking to modernize and boost
their economies. These are some of the
many fundamental drivers of the expected
economic recovery:Vision 2030
At its heart, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030
is a series of reforms designed to diver-
sify the country’s economy, reducing its
overall reliance on oil. The plans are based
on three pillars, acknowledging Saudi Ara-
bia’s role at the heart of the Islamic world,its ability to become a global investment
power house, and finally, positioning itself
as a global hub connecting Africa, Asia,
and Europe. As part of its diversification
plans, Saudi Arabia is investing into key
sectors such as culture, entertainment,
and sports, as well as introducing reforms
to improve its business climate. 80 pro-
jects are said to be planned for completion
by 2030, including a luxury Red Sea re-
sort featuring 50 islands, covering 34,000
sq. km., and a $2 billion investment into
the General Authority for Entertainment,
the body responsible for leisure initiatives
across the country. Already in 2018, for-
eign investments have made more than a
two-fold increase from the previous year.KSA privatization program
In April of last year, Saudi Arabia an-
nounced its privatization program, which
aims to pull in $11 billion worth of non-oil
revenues by 2020, creating up to 12,000
jobs. Focused on driving public-private
partnership investments worth between
SAR24–28 billion, plans include the
corporatization and privatization of key
government services such as transport,
manufacturing and water. The govern-
ment aims to raise $200 billion through
privatization in the coming years as part
of its Vision 2030. It is hoped throughits privatization reforms that the Saudi
government will improve services, reduce
government spending and enable it to
focus on ensuring the legislative and
regulatory environment to enable busi-
nesses to thrive. At the same time, various
transparency and anti-corruption reforms
in Saudi Arabia have been moving at a
fast pace, and with significant high-level
support. This is key for encouraging entre-
preneurship as well as foreign investment,
and a healthy development of competition
within the private sector.KSA and UAE allowing foreign ownership
In an effort to attract more FDI to their
nations, both KSA and UAE have intro-
duced reforms permitting 100% foreign
ownership in multiple sectors. The
reforms are not only designed to draw
more investments into each country, but
among multiple benefits to businesses, it
is thought that it will drive M&A activity
and FDI due to the greater pool of foreign
purchasers.UAE and KSA giving long term visas
The UAE has recently undertaken a
sweeping set of reforms in relation to visa
requirements, which have been designed
to help facilitate the process for people
seeking employment. These reforms have
included providing a one-year grace period
for widows and divorced women, students
completing university, and the possibil-
ity of a two-time renewal of 30-day visit
visa. This has been followed up with the
introduction of a 10-year visa for highly
skilled workers and investors, and this is
expected to improve all round confidence
among the business community and inves-
tors in committing to the UAE market.
Similarly, KSA has been relaxing its visa
rules, and both countries are talking of
offering long term or even permanent
residencies.