SUSTG.com / Research

Discover stories, topics, and more about Saudi Arebia faster.

Recent stories from sustg

MUST-READS

  • Heritage
    Renovated historic mosques in Saudi Arabia reopen to worshippers after 6 decades

    Worshippers have started returning to five Saudi historic mosques restored to their former glory after being out of use for up to six decades. Preservation work on buildings in the Makkah and Al-Baha regions has been completed as part of phase one of the Mohammed bin Salman Project for Historical Mosques Renovation.

  • VAT
    VAT returns near $13mln, non-oil income up 77% in Saudi Arabia

    Commitment to the value-added tax (VAT) in Saudi Arabia has reached 90%, surpassing all estimates, said the Saudi Minister of Finance, Mohammed Al Jadaan. Al Jadaan noted that VAT revenues in the first year of its introduction in the Kingdom amounted to SAR 46.7 million.

  • Economy
    $17bln spent on private sector innovation in Saudi Arabia

    Spending on innovation in Saudi Arabia’s private sector totaled more than SR64 billion ($17.5 billion) in 2018, a wide-ranging government survey revealed. The Institutional Innovation Survey 2018, released by the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) on Monday, also showed that spending on innovation reached 2.74 percent of the total expenditure in the private sector.

  • Government Spending
    Saudi Arabia to Cut Spending as Private Sector Growth Picks Up

    Spending is expected to fall from about 1.05 trillion riyals ($280 billion) this year to 1.02 trillion riyals in 2020, then to 955 billion riyals by 2022, according to a pre-budget statement issued by the Finance Ministry on Thursday.

  • Foreign Labor
    Close to 134,000 expats left private sector in Saudi Arabia during Q2

    The number of expats leaving the private sector in Saudi Arabia during the second quarter of the year reached almost 134,000, with an average of 1,468 departures by foreign workers on a daily basis.

  • Privatization
    Saudi Arabia’s privatization goals fall short on progress

    One example is the plan to privatise Riyadh airport, which has been put on hold since 2018. Officials at the time described the move as a first step towards “corporatisation” of the kingdom’s second-busiest transport hub. However, people familiar with the plan have said it was halted because it started to look more like a concession, in which a company is granted a long-term lease to manage an airport, rather than selling it to the private sector.

  • VAT
    VAT Increases Saudi Arabia’s Tax revenue By Over 89%

    Non-oil revenue initiatives led to higher tax revenue estimates ($44.2 billion) in 2018, increasing by 89.4% compared to 2017, as stated by the Saudi MoF. Taxes on goods and services, in particular, were expected to increase in 2018 by 187.9% compared to 2017, and 32.9% compared to the budget estimate.

  • VAT
    Saudi Arabia should consider raising VAT to 10%: IMF

    The IMF expects the budget deficit to increase this year to 6.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 5.9% of GDP in 2018 as higher government expenditure is likely to curb the upside of stronger non-oil economic growth.

  • Innovation
    Saudi Arabia’s innovation landscape

    A KAUST Innovation Committee has been formed under the chairmanship of Andrew Liveris, former CEO of KAUST research and development partner Dow Chemical Company. The committee is creating a national innovation workshop involving many innovation partners such as TAQNIA, Monshaat, Badir, Nidlip, RPDC and Industry 4.0.

  • Work Visas
    Saudi Arabia launches ‘instant visa’ for expats in the private sector

    This week, Saudi Arabia announced that private sector firms will now be able to get instant visas for foreign workers, a process that used to take around eight months previously. In order to be granted an instant visa, the company must be enrolled in the kingdom's "nationalization program" and must have witnessed an increase in its Saudi workforce.