Eliminating minimum capital requirement and facilitating business start-up in Saudi Arabia

45660 ELIMINATING MINIMUM CAPITAL REQUIREMENT AND FACILITATING BUSINESS START-UP IN SAUDI ARABIA DR. AWWAD AL-AWWAD, DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF THE SAUDI ARABIAN GENERAL INVESTMENT AUTHORITY How do you make reform happen quickly in a country where it used to take an entrepreneur 125 days to get a construction license and 39 days to start a business? An obvious answer is to let the most influential person give the first instruction. However, this is not enough. Well-organized efforts aimed at delivering results must follow. This case began in 2006. Having seen that Saudi Arabia was not the best in the Middle East and North Africa, and was also doing poorly compared to the rest of the world, Saudi King Abdullah had a clear vision to enhance Saudi Arabia's competitiveness and prosperity. The first brick in the creation of the 10-by-10 initiative