Riyadh — Mubasher: Saudi Arabia set up around 500 entertainment-related companies in the kingdom during 2018, according to the deputy governor for marketing and communication of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA).
“It’s an interesting sector, because it’s [small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)] that add the most value in this sector,” Khaled Tash told Arabian Business.
Saudi Arabia will see a large number of tourism-related companies in the near future, Tash expects.
He added that the Saudi government and private-sector firms see a potentially lucrative opportunities to upgrade services for millions of Hajj and Umrah performers each year.
“We don’t like to call it a market, or to call it tourism..It’s really a duty that we have, and it’s our duty to up the level when it comes to customer service. These are our customers,” the deputy governor of SAGIA noted.
On the sidelines of the two-day Saudi First Investment Initiative (FII), dubbed “Davos in the Desert”, which kicked off on 23 October 2018 in Riyadh, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah inked an agreement with Germany-based SAP to develop cloud technology to help cater to pilgrims.
The ministry also signed a separate agreement with Cisco Saudi Arabia in a bid to improve its digital infrastructure.
In the same vein, the oil-rich GCC nation, Malaysia and Indonesia announced in mid-2018 the launch of the “Makkah Road Initiative”, a pre-clearance system that will help facilitate the journey of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.
For the first time in Saudi Arabia’s history, government departments have been mandated to “find ways to engage investors,” Tash told Arabian Business.
