RIYADH — Twenty-four international companies have signed agreements to establish main regional offices in Riyadh, in the presence of Minister of Investment Eng. Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih and Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City Fahd Bin Abdulmohsen Al-Rasheed. The signing ceremony was also attended by CEOs of major international companies such as PepsiCo; Schlumberger; Deloitte; PWC; Tim Hortons; Bechtel; Bosch; Boston Scientific and others. This step reflects the importance and confidence in the Saudi market regionally and globally. The efforts to attract regional offices of international companies come as an element of the Riyadh strategy, which aims to double the size of the economy and achieve major leaps in generating jobs, improving the quality of life, and attracting and expanding investments to place Riyadh among the ten largest city economies in the world by 2030. The headquarters attraction program aims to increase the percentage of the local content, reduce any economic leakage, and develop new sectors, in addition to creating tens of thousands of new quality jobs for the best qualified people. Attracting regional headquarters is not an end, but rather one of the economic growth potentials that Riyadh aspires to achieve. It must be noted that Saudi Arabia is currently working on many systemic amendments with the aim of developing an investment environment that incubates global investments. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will work to provide many incentives and advantages that raise its competitiveness regionally and globally, to attract these headquarters and give them sufficient time to move and operate without affecting their business. The incentives offered will be limited to regional headquarters only, excluding their operations outside the regional headquarters. The Royal Commission for Riyadh City will work with these companies on programs and initiatives to qualify young Saudi leaders to work in these headquarters, as attracting regional headquarters will result in more than 35,000 jobs for young men and women in the Kingdom, in addition that each job created at the regional headquarters produces two or three jobs approximately. It is expected that attracting regional headquarters will contribute to the national economy with a value of 61 to 70 billion riyals by 2030 through salaries, operating and capital expenditures of these companies, resulting in a growth in the local content across many important sectors. — SPA