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The Commerce Ministry issued a total of 136k new commercial registry records in 3Q 2024, marking a 62% y-o-y rise in the number of newly-issued registrations, according to the ministry’s quarterly report (pdf). Women-owned businesses accounted for 45% of the newly-issued registration documents during the quarter, the ministry said. Riyadh, Makkah and the Eastern Province emerged as top regions for business activity in Saudi, which collectively saw 72% of all new registrations in 3Q.
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The lay of the land: Saudi now has a total of 1.5 mn active commercial registrations, 46.8% of which are held by women. Of that same overall figure, 38% of commercial registrations are held by young entrepreneurs, according to the breakdown. Overall, Riyadh is home to 495.5k active registrations, followed by Makkah at 335k, and the Eastern Province at 235.9k.
Gaming industry leads the pack: The game development sector recorded the highest y-o-y growth in commercial registrations in 3Q 2024, with their number more than doubling to 5.8k, up from 2.8k during the same period last year. This was followed by 68% y-o-y growth in new commercial records in the logistics sector to 14.2k, a 49% uptick in the AI tech sector (10.2k), and a 48% increase in the 3D printing tech (5.4k). Commercial registrations for fintechs grew at 27% y-o-y. The number of active registrations in the local e-commerce sector came in at 39.8k in 3Q, up from 36.3k during the same period last year.
Also seeing growth: The financial and ins. services sector logged a total of 11.2k commercial registrations by the end of 3Q (17% y-o-y growth), followed by 8.6k in the hotel apartments sector (43% y-o-y growth). The sports club sector recorded 7.5k registrations (17% y-o-y growth), with wellbeing and personal care centers at 6.6k (37% y-o-y growth) .
REMEMBER- The Cabinet recently signed off a new Commercial Registration Law and Trade Name Law, which are set to take effect 180 days from their publication in the Kingdom’s official Gazette last Friday. Among other changes, companies will now be required to have a singular commercial register covering all of their activities in Saudi.
