The Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority “Monsha’at” announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia achieved top rankings in the indicators of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report for 2019/2020, coming first in the indicator “knowing someone who has started a new business”, which points to a positive business environment and the desire to engage in business, and second in the indicator “having the knowledge and skills to start a business”, which points to the positive impact of support programs in building the skills that qualify young men and women to start their entrepreneurial businesses.

The Kingdom ranked third in government policies supporting entrepreneurship, third in the indicator “job expectations created through entrepreneurship”, and sixth in the indicator “promising opportunities to start a business in my area”, which shows the strong link between the economy and its growth and the creation of opportunities to start a business and the ease of doing business, which in turn increases the chances of starting a business.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report explained that the Kingdom climbed rapidly from 42nd to 18th in the ranking of the indicator “barriers to entering the local market”, noting that the Kingdom continued its progress, reaching tenth globally in the indicator of government regulations and legislation in terms of taxes and bureaucracy. In 2019, it rose to 15th in the government entrepreneurship programs indicator after ranking 35th in 2018, made significant progress in the entrepreneurial finance indicator, jumping from 45th to 19th, and reached 17th in the state of entrepreneurship indicator after previously ranking 41st.

The report emphasized that the Kingdom was the most improved in the overall state of entrepreneurship in 2019, commending Monsha’at’s initiatives and programs that have played a role in improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem and making it more fertile: the Estrdad initiative, the University Startups initiative, the Tomoh Program, the Saudi Startups Forum, the Saudi Venture Capital Company, and the franchise and e-commerce laws.

The report pointed to the impact of the government’s efforts in developing startup activity, with an increase of up to 15.4%, and emphasized that the Kingdom has contributed to the initiative to support and empower women, which limits and reduces the gender pay gap, in addition to involving and supporting women in small and medium businesses.

Monsha’at works diligently to meet all the needs of SMEs and male and female entrepreneurs, to create a promising environment that offers opportunities to thrive by providing support services and business opportunities that support the growth of the SME sector and strengthen its competitiveness, and by encouraging the culture of entrepreneurship and supporting ambitious entrepreneurs to increase the rate of new company formation.