Okaz / Saudi Gazette
RIYADH — About 99 percent of the tasattur operations (expatriates doing business in names of Saudis for certain fees) is in the small enterprises, according to the governor of the General Authority for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Ghassan Al-Sulaiman, who is also advisor to the Minister of Commerce and Investments.
He told a meeting in Riyadh on Sunday that about 38 percent of the companies, which were established in the Kingdom, were owned by women. "We are endeavoring to increase the contribution of the SMEs in the GDP to more than SR1.7 billion," he said.
Solaiman said representatives of the authority visited 17 countries of the world whose economy depends on SMEs to benefit from their experiences. The governor was talking at the BIBAN 2017 SME Forum, which was laying down the ground work for a conference to be held in Riyadh on Sept. 17-20 to develop the SMEs and find the best ways to finance them.
"The tasattur is a secret activity which is difficult to discover or find exact data about it. We have forwarded a recommendation to the Council of Ministers to deal more sternly with it," he said.
Asked about foreigners owning projects in the Kingdom, Sulaiman answered: “We have no sensitivity about non-Saudis owning and operating projects. We are only concerned with the contribution of the project in the Saudi economy.”
The governor said the current contribution of the SMEs in the GDP is about 21 percent but in the labor market it is 53 percent. "We are planning to raise the contribution of the SMEs in the GDP to more than 35 percent by the year 2030," he said.
He denied reports that the authority had contracted a foreign company to promote BIBAN 2017 SME and said the company, which the authority had contracted to do this work is 100 percent Saudi firm and is also an SME.
Sulaiman said the authority has come a long way in preparing a national plan for the SMEs which will be forwarded to the Council of Ministers before the end of the year for approval. He said the plan would specify the role of each ministry and government department in supporting the SMES.
