Saudi Arabia seeks to empower private sector, boost SMEs to drive economy: Al-Jasser

Saleh Al-Jasser, Minister of Transport and Logistic Services

Saudi Arabia seeks to empower the private sector and entrepreneurs, as well as accelerate the private sector business, Minister of Transport and Logistics Services Saleh Al-Jasser told Biban Forum 23 in Riyadh.

He added that the Kingdom seeks to provide new opportunities for entrepreneurs, and boost small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to achieve sustainable development and support the national economy, Saudi Press Agency reported.

The National Transport Strategy aims to strengthen partnership with the private sector, the minister said, adding that the strategy includes a package of ambitious projects that contributes to expanding investment opportunities.

Further, the ministry worked on facilitating procedures for entrepreneurs by launching a unified logistics license, which aims to accelerate business in the logistics services sector. Accordingly, more than 1,500 logistics services providers were licensed in 2022 to expand the market and enable investments.

The minister stressed that the Logistics Academy launched various programs to graduate business leaders in the logistics sector.

He added that the transport and logistics system contributes to supporting the content; hence the local content dominated more than 41% of the system.

The system also seeks to increase this percentage to 60%, Al-Jasser noted.

He indicated that the transport and logistics system aims to enable the private sector, including SMEs and entrepreneurs, to achieve the goals of the National Transport Strategy in line with Vision 2030.