NEW INCUBATOR TO HELP SPAWN SAUDI START-UP SUCCESS

Astrolabs became the first foreign business incubator in Saudi Arabia, to nurture start-ups, entrepreneurs and help develop the kingdom’s small and medium business ecosystem.

In November, the Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority (SAGIA) said it had granted its foreign investment license in the field of business incubators to Dubai-based Astrolabs, which specialises in providing services to entrepreneurs, offering information, training courses, and support resources. The company’s founding and strategic partners are Google for Startups, IBM, and Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre.

In addition, SAGIA has signed an agreement with Astrolabs to attract foreign entrepreneurs to invest in Saudi Arabia, allowing them to obtain a business set-up license with 100% ownership as part of the transformation that contributes to achieving the economic diversification objectives as part of Saudi Vision 2030, the company said.

Astrolabs has been working on a pilot project to help its first 100% foreign-owned company set up structure in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

We’ll help you issue your SAGIA Entrepreneur License, Commercial Registration, and Chamber of Commerce Certificate. You will have an entity, can open up a bank account, sponsor shareholders and GM residencies, and start doing business legally in Saudi Arabia, Astrolabs said in a statement on its website.

The government’s renewed focus on privatisation, the development of a national industrial programme, logistics for industry development and local content in various sectors, such as renewable energy, military industries, exports and mining, are all opportunities for SMEs to spread their wings, according to Tariq Al-Shohaib, deputy minister for revenues at the Ministry of Finance.

Al-Shohaib also believes this support is not limited to government-led initiatives and programmes, but extends to digital systems and services, such as the new government procurement and competition system.

This system, which is subject to review and endorsement, gives priority to local content and small and medium enterprises by providing local content and SMEs a mandatory proportion of the total value of the contract, according to a Ministry of Finance statement. “As well as the digital financial platform, Etimad, which offers a great opportunity for small and medium enterprises to participate in competition and procurement, increases transparency and consolidates procedures.

The focus on including small businesses into the wider transformation and investments taking place in the kingdom was evident in Saudi Aramco’s 4th In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) Forum & Exhibition at the Dhahran Expo Centre in Dammam.

The event attracted more than 1,000 local and international energy sector service and equipment suppliers, manufacturers and SMEs to explore available investment opportunities with Saudi Aramco in the upstream, chemicals, utilities, non-metallic, IT and cybersecurity, and other areas.

Aramco signed deals worth USD 27.5 billion with its suppliers, which primarily features domestic players as part of the company’s IKTVA plan, focused on supporting local content by contributing to job creation, technology transfer, training and development, and R&D. By 2030, the programme aims to establish 30 training centres to help prepare 360,000 highly skilled graduates for jobs of the future.

Our 2018 IKTVA Forum marked the half-way point to our local-content goals, and the event has underlined the win-win nature of our programme with many of our international suppliers increasing their market share or moving their manufacturing to the kingdom, said Saudi Aramco president and CEO Amin H. Nasser.

Over the two-day event, we signed USD 27.5 billion in a total of 31 commercial collaborations. Companies that have invested here are ideally positioned to benefit further with our signing last month of SAR 125 billion in business at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, much of which will have a direct impact on IKTVA. As of now, 51% of each riyal Saudi Aramco earmarks for materials and services is spent locally.

The country’s Vision 2030 programme is being led by major players such as Public Investment Fund and Saudi Aramco, but it is important they make sure that smaller enterprises also ride the wave of growth.