Saudi Arabia

Ease of Doing Business in

Saudi Arabia

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Saudi Arabia. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

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Economy Summary
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
Region Middle East & North Africa
Income Category High income
Population 28,082,541
GNI Per Capita (US$) 17,820
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
22 23 down 1

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
71.9 71.0 down 0.9
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 78 73 up -5
Dealing with Construction Permits 32 28 up -4
Getting Electricity 12 12 No change
Registering Property 12 11 up -1
Getting Credit 53 52 up -1
Protecting Investors 19 17 up -2
Paying Taxes 3 10 up 7
Trading Across Borders 36 29 up -7
Enforcing Contracts 124 138 up 14
Resolving Insolvency 107 102 up -5

Economy Profile

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Doing Business Resources

Doing Business law library Law Library

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Additional Topic

Additional Data

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Starting a Business

Info

The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

DB 2013 Rank 78 DB 2012 Rank 73 Change in Rank down-5
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 80.9 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 80.7 Improvement in DTF** (% points) up0.2
Indicator Saudi Arabia Middle East & North Africa OECD

The total number of procedures required to register a firm. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the company founders with external parties (for example, government agencies, lawyers, auditors or notaries).

View methodology Procedures (number)
9 8 5

The total number of days required to register a firm. The measure captures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow-up with government agencies and no extra payments.

View methodology Time (days)
21 23 12

Cost is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita. It includes all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law.

View methodology Cost (% of income per capita)
5.0 29.8 4.5

The amount that the entrepreneur needs to deposit in a bank or with a notary before registration and up to 3 months following incorporation and is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita.

View methodology Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
0.0 72.3 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Reserve a company name 1 day no charge
2 Submit required documentation at the Unified Center (UC) 1 day no charge
3 Pay registration fee at a Bank window, located in the same building as the Unified Center 1 day SAR 1,200 registration fee + SAR 650 publication of summary AOA
4 Meet with the Notary public who reviews documentation and notarizes the Articles of Association (AoA) 1 week no charge
5 Open bank account 4 days no charge
6 Submit the approved documentation, certificate of deposit and AoA at the Unified Center, as well as 2 applications and one undertaking 2 days no charge
7 Pay Chamber of Commerce membership fee at Unified Center 1 day SAR 2,100 Chamber of Commerce fee
* 8 Register with GOSI 3 days, simultaneous with previous procedure no charge
* 9 Register with the Department of Zakat 3 days, simultaneous withprevious procedure no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

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