RIYADH: The Kingdom’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources issued 68 new industrial licenses during November with an investment volume of up to SR735 million ($196 million), an increase of around 14 percent in the number of new licenses compared to October. There were 10,253 factories in the country up to the end of November, the Saudi Press Agency reported. A report from the National Center for Industrial and Mining Information said the biggest share of the new industrial licenses was for the food product industry with 14 licenses followed by the chemical industry with nine. Riyadh accounted for most of the new licenses according to their geographical distribution with 24, and then the Eastern Region with 17. The report also showed that small factories accounted for 89 percent of the new licenses for November and medium-sized factories constituted 8.7 percent. National factories accounted for 90 percent of the total new facilities and the share of foreign investment was 5 percent of these licenses.