Accommodation

Though the increasing religious travel to the country is encouraging investments, the hospitality industry in Saudi Arabia is recording dynamic key performance indicators . The kingdom is focusing on improving investment opportunities through the introduction of several projects. Qiddiya, The Red Sea Development, Amaala, NEOM, Al Ula, Wadi Al Disah Development are the major projects launched by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia in 2018 and are aiming at fulfilling the target Vision 2030. The increasing religious and leisure travel to the Kingdom has opened investment opportunities in the hospitality industry and resulted in an increasing number of new hotels opening in the key cities. The top-performing international brands opened more than 20 new hotels a few directly with their brand name and a few through strategic partnerships with the leading domestic hospitality groups and added more than 8,200 rooms/keys to the existing supply covering all segments of the market. Jeddah recorded the highest average daily revenue value among the top competitive markets across the globe with USD 284. Makkah, Riyadh and Dammam/ Al Khobar are also among the top 10 locations that recorded the highest average daily revenue across the world with USD 176, USD 170 and USD 132 respectively during 2019 (pre-covid19) making the region an attractive market for investors.

Electricity and Power

By end-2020, Saudi Arabia had an installed generation capacity of 79.7 GW, of which nearly 87 per cent (69.1 GW) was owned by SEC and the remaining 13 per cent by independent power producers (IPPs). SEC’s capacity includes 15.9 GW of capacity that is jointly owned in partnership with other companies. Majority of the country’s capacity is based on thermal sources comprising natural gas, crude oil, diesel and heavy fuel oil.

Saudi Arabia has started adding RE capacity to its generation mix by setting up solar PV plants over the last couple of years. In November 2019, the ACWA Power-led joint venture (JV) completed Saudi Arabia’s first utility-scale solar farm—the 300 MW Sakaka PV IPP project.

Saudi Arabia has four interconnections with the neighbouring countries of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) interconnection project. As of 2020, Saudi Arabia’s transmission network comprised about 89,100 circuit-km of line length and 1,150 substations at voltage 110 kV to 380 kV. Around half the network comprises of 110 kV−132 kV transmission lines, while SEC also owns 80,900 circuit-km of fibre optic lines and about 702,100 circuit-km of distribution lines.

Financial Services

According to The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) annual report for the year 2020 indicated the stability of the financial system to support economic growth. Additionally, in 2020, money supply grew by 8.3 percent to SAR 2,149.3 billion. Despite the circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi banking sector remained resilient and stable, owing to the actions and measures undertaken collectively by SAMA and Saudi banks. Such actions and measures played a significant role in mitigating the adverse impacts of the pandemic on the private and banking sectors. Commercial banks displayed its good performance in 2020, with their total assets increasing by 13.2 percent to SAR 2,979.5 billion and total banking deposits by 8.2 percent to SAR 1,943 billion. Furthermore, the Report shed light on SAMA's efforts in the area of oversight and supervision through effective supervision of the financial sector in order to boost the sector's sentiment and ensure its soundness and achieve highest levels of efficiency. At the end of 2020, the Basel III capital adequacy ratio reached 20.3 percent, the liquidity coverage ratio 200.58 percent and the net stable funding ratio 127.19 percent. These indicators demonstrate the resilience of the Saudi banking system and its satisfactory liquidity levels that are available to support all sectors of the national economy. 

The Report also included SAMA's endeavours to fulfil the mandates entrusted to it in line with national economy requirements to counter global challenges and realize the Saudi Vision 2030. This includes promoting financial inclusion, developing the finance ecosystem for SMEs, supporting real estate finance, developing modern payment systems and methods, developing the FinTech sector, and continuing the regulation and development of the insurance sector

List of Banks in KSA : https://www.swiftbic.com/banks-in-SAUDI-ARABIA.html

Clearing and Forwarding Agents

Conditions to Practice Customs Clearance Activity in KSA https://www.customs.gov.sa/themes/custom/customs/files/agreements/customs_clearance/en.pdf

Postal and Courier Services

Parcel transfer regulations in KSA https://www.citc.gov.sa/en/services/licensing/Documents/parcelregulations.pdf

List of licensed  courier companies in KSA https://www.citc.gov.sa/ar/services/licensing/Pages/postalissuedlicenses.aspx

Printing and Publishing

KSA ranked one of the top three in the publishing business in the Middle East, with investments in the local sector valued at over ASR 5 billion annually, comprising 400 publishing houses and 4000 personnel in printing, publishing, distribution and selling. the number of high-production-volume publishing houses that publish 500 titles is 100, while the rest publish between one and five books each year. some publishing houses produce quality books made with ink and papers imported from Japan, Russia and Germany, which explains the high cost of Saudi books in the Kingdom compared to other books in Egypt and Lebanon, which are made using local raw materials.

Taxi Companies

The Public Transport Authority (PTA), in cooperation with the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), has started to implement qualitative changes in the Kingdom’s taxi sector. Taxis are obliged to use a regulated fare system for inner-city and inter-cities travel, meters, as well as electronic payment facilities. Vehicles are also linked to modern tracking technologies and maps, as well as green exterior to be clearly identifiable.

The minimum rate is fixed for short-distance travel, the distance travel would determine the rates for long trips, and this is also applied to bus and train tickets. The PTA proposed that the cost of daily commute should not exceed 5% of a family’s daily average income and it should not exceed 10% of income when travelling long distances in trips from small cities and suburban areas.

Training program for taxi drivers has also been started by the PTA in all regions of the Kingdom. This also includes major airports and contains specialized training courses, focusing to develop the skills of drivers in serving tourists and visitors, raise the level of professional competence of drivers in dealing with customers and enrich the experience of visitors to the Kingdom in general.

Vehicle Rental

The car rental and leasing market in Saudi Arabia was valued at ~SAR 6.9bn in 2019. The sector has witnessed consistent growth in the past few years. However, in 2020, the sector was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and the subsequent restrictive measures, including travel ban and suspension of Hajj and Umrah pilgrims. The car rental business was the most impacted, while vehicle leasing was relatively stable. Companies in the sector with diverse fleet utilization, across renting and leasing, were able to mitigate the impact to some extent. Furthermore, an increase in used-car sales helped in partly offsetting the effect of lower revenue from car renting. The sector is slowly recovering, although operating conditions are yet to normalize fully. The improved in 2021, with recent opening of international borders, and anticipated increase in the vaccination rate and a better Hajj and Umrah season compared to 2020. In the long run, in-line with the higher vaccination drive, both renting and leasing businesses are likely to regain the growth momentum, driven by increased business activities, opening of the economy, high disposable incomes, the new visa policy, and focus on boosting tourism.

Waste Management and Disposal Services

Saudi Arabia has been witnessing rapid industrialization, high population growth rate and fast urbanization which have resulted in increased levels of pollution and waste. Solid waste management is becoming a big challenge for the government and local bodies with each passing day. With population of around 29 million, Saudi Arabia generates more than 15 million tons of solid waste per year. The per capita waste generation is estimated at 1.5 to 1.8 kg per person per day.

More than 75 percent of the population is concentrated in urban areas which make it necessary for the government to initiate measures to improve recycling and waste management scenario in the country. Solid waste generation in the three largest cities – Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam – exceeds 6 million tons per annum which gives an indication of the enormity of the problem faced by civic bodies. 

Waste Disposal - Non-hazardous

In Saudi Arabia, garbage is collected from individual or community bins and disposed of in landfills or dumpsites. Saudi waste management system is characterized by lack of waste disposal facilities and absence of tipping fees. Most of the landfills are expected to reach their capacities within the next 10 years. Recycling, reuse and energy recovery is still at an early stage, although they are getting increased attention. Waste sorting and recycling are driven by an active informal sector. Recycling rate ranges from 10-15%, mainly due to the presence of the informal sector which extracts paper, metals and plastics from municipal waste. Recycling activities are mostly manual and labour intensive. Composting is also gaining increased interest in Saudi Arabia due to the high organic content of MSW (around 40%).  Efforts are also underway to deploy waste-to-energy technologies in the Kingdom. All activities related to waste management are coordinated and financed by the government.

The Saudi government is aware of the critical demand for waste management solutions and is investing heavily in solving this problem. The 2017 national budget allocated SR 54 billion for the municipal services sector, which includes water drainage and waste disposal. The Saudi government is making concerted efforts to improve recycling and waste disposal activities.  Recently the Saudi Government approved new regulations to ensure an integrated framework for the management of municipal wastes. The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs will be responsible for overseeing the tasks and responsibilities of the solid waste management system.

waste management Companies in Saudi Arabia https://www.environmental-expert.com/companies/keyword-waste-management-272/location-saudi-arabia

Waste Disposal - Hazardous

Hazard waste disposal manual produced by King Fahd university http://www.kfshrc.edu.sa/Packages/ForEmployees/SafetyManualDocuments/employee%20safety%20manual-8.pdf

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