Ministry of Industry licenses 124 new factories worth SAR 2.4 bln in January

Logo of Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources

Saudi Arabia licensed 124 new factories at a total investment value of SAR 2.4 billion in January, data issued by Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources showed. 

The ministry indicated that these licenses were divided into five activities, topped by manufacture of food products with 29 licenses, followed by other non-metallic minerals (18 licenses), activity of manufacturing chemical materials and products (12 licenses), manufacturing formed metals, excluding machinery and equipment (11 licenses) and manufacturing rubber products (8 licenses). 

Small-sized enterprises dominated most of the newly issued licenses in January with 86.29%, followed by medium-sized enterprises and micro-enterprises with 11.29% and 2.42%, respectively. 

National factories dominated the new licenses according to the type of investment by 79.84 followed by foreign establishments by 10.48%, and joint investments by 9.68%. 

The National Industrial Development Center (NIDC) showed that the factories that started production during last January amounted to 164 factories, with investments amounting to SAR 2.7 billion.

The new industrial licenses were distributed among 12 administrative regions, topped by Riyadh with 44 factories, followed by Makkah and the Eastern Province with 24 factories for each region, Qassim region with 10 factories, Madinah with eight factories, Jizan with five factories, Asir with three factories, Hail with two factories, the Northern Borders Province, Tabuk, Al-Jawf Province, and Najran with one factory each.

The report showed that the number of existing factories reached 10,630 with an investment volume of SAR 1.4 trillion.