Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA)
الهيئة العامة للإستثمار
Agency overview
Jurisdiction Saudi Arabia
Headquarters Riyadh
Coordinates: 24°38′57″N 46°44′8″E / 24.64917°N 46.73556°E
Agency executive Abdullatif Al Othman, Governor
Website Official website

The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) was created by the Saudi Government on 10 April 2000, as part of measures geared towards formalizing the process of economic liberalization. SAGIA is responsible for managing the investment environment in the Kingdom. Its objective is to achieve economic growth by creating a pro-business environment, providing services to investors and fostering investment opportunities in key sectors of the economy, including energy, transportation, ICT, and knowledge-based industries.

Programs and plans

The “10 x 10” Program

The objective of SAGIA’s “10 x 10” program[1] is to place Saudi Arabia among the world’s top ten competitive investment destinations by 2010. With this in mind, SAGIA has created the National Competitiveness Center (NCC), which compares the performance of Saudi Arabia’s investment opportunities to more than 300 indicators of global competitiveness, assessed in such publications as the World Bank’s Doing Business report, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, and the IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook.[2]

Guiding the drive toward greater competitiveness, job creation, and economic diversification is the "Economic Cities" program. The Economic Cities program will create a business-friendly environment within a globally competitive regulatory framework that offers business incentives.

The Economic Cities

In developing economic cities, over a thousand of the world’s free zones were surveyed. The sixty deemed most successful were studied to determine key success factors. The objectives of the Economic Cities are to:

Governor of SAGIA

First SAGIA governor was Abdullah bin Faisal bin Turki Al Saud whose tenure lasted from 2000 to 2004.[3] Later, Amr Al Dabbagh became the Governor of SAGIA on 22 March 2004 and his term lasted until 18 May 2012. Abdullatif bin Ahmed Al Othman became governor of SAGIA on 18 May 2012. Al Othman was Senior Vice President of Saudi Aramco before his appointment.[4]

Other SAGIA managers

Deputy governor of SAGIA for investment affairs is Prince Saud bin Khalid Al Faisal since December 2010.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Overview of 10x10 Program
  2. ↑ NCC (National Competitveness Center)Overview
  3. ↑ "Wide Angle". PBS. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  4. ↑ "Al Othman new SAGIA chief". Arab News. 19 May 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2012.

External links