E-commerce has grown significantly in Saudi Arabia over the recent years, announced Saudi Trade and Investment Minister Majid al-Qasabi during an international gathering in Riyadh. Officials asserted the need to shift towards e-commerce and keep up with the rapid progress in trading and marketing mechanisms, while stressing the importance of combating e-fraud. “E-commerce in the Kingdom has grown significantly – we have more than SR80 billion ($21.3 million) in services and products and 45,000 shops and e-commerce platforms,” announced Qasabi. The Minister was speaking at the Retail Leaders Circle (RLC) MENA Summit which kicked off in Riyadh on Monday, in partnership with “Invest Saudi”. He said Saudi Arabia enjoyed a unique blend of promising opportunities in the mining, tourism, entertainment, sports, and other sectors which made the Kingdom an ideal destination for global investment. “As we begin to focus on the Kingdoms value proposition, we have a unique blend of opportunities that make Saudi Arabia a destination for investment.” Customs Governor Ahmed al-Haqbani revealed that Saudi Arabia jumped 72 global centers in the “trading across borders” index within one year, according to the Doing Business 2020 report issued by the World Bank. He noted that the retail sector is promising with many opportunities to transfer investments to Saudi Arabia, ensuring the ability to provide better and faster customer services. The sixth session of RLC summit will discuss the ‘Past, Present, and Future of Retail: Strategies to Win in the Rapidly Changing Retail Landscape.” The two-day summit includes sessions, workshops, and strategic dialogues with the participation of experts, officials, businessmen, investors, and workers in the sector from around the world. The summit will bring together more than 1,500 retail leaders, brand owners, SMEs, industry stakeholders policy-makers and investors. It will organize talks and workshops that address the changing environment of retail and consumption in the Kingdom and the region. It aims to shed light on Saudi Arabia’s plans to become a pioneer in business, investment, and retail in line with its Vision 2030 goals. The Kingdom’s hosting of the event coincides with Saudi Arabia taking over the G20 presidency. The partnership between Invest Saudi and RLC is part of efforts by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority to attract key world and regional events that bring together business pioneers and decision-makers. Significantly, Saudi Arabia ranked seventh in retail trade according to the 2019 Global Retail Development Index.