Minister Oh Young-joo: "Supporting Small and Medium Venture Enterprises to Become Key Players in the Second Middle East Boom"

Riyadh GBC Hosts Meeting for Companies Entering Saudi Market

On the 5th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held a meeting with resident companies at the Riyadh Global Business Center (Riyadh GBC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Riyadh GBC is a government collaboration-type GBC established last October through continuous communication and cooperation between the Korean and Saudi governments. The Saudi Ministry of Investment provides preferential treatment for resident companies to obtain entrepreneur licenses through Riyadh GBC recommendations, assigns dedicated staff to the Saudi Ministry of Investment to establish a constant communication channel, and offers various other support.

Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, is attending and speaking at the Economic Relations Ministers' Meeting.

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, when obtaining an entrepreneur license, the general license maintenance cost required to conduct business in Saudi Arabia is reduced to about 12%, and the minimum capital requirement is waived. For example, the distribution company DillyDilly, which is currently undergoing entrepreneur license issuance review, will be able to operate in Saudi Arabia without the 10 billion KRW minimum capital once the entrepreneur license is issued.

Among the resident companies at Riyadh GBC, entrepreneur licenses have been issued to seven companies, and various supports for localization such as legal and accounting advisory, local agent matching, and product testing and improvement have been provided simultaneously.

At the meeting, which began with an introduction to Riyadh GBC, various opinions from resident companies were expressed regarding overseas corporation funding support and strengthening the role of GBC to activate the entry of SMEs and startups into the Middle East. Minister Oh Young-joo stated, “Saudi Arabia’s recent aggressive investment across industries and its economic diversification policy present a great growth opportunity for SMEs and startups entering the Middle East,” adding, “We will spare no effort to support SMEs and startups to become the main players of the second Middle East boom.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.