RIYADH: New mining companies helped drive a 12.1 percent annual increase in commercial registrations in Madinah in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to official data. Issued by the city’s chamber of commerce, the economic report showed growth in the volume of commercial records across 17 economic activities in 20 sectors. This surge underscores the Kingdom’s commitment to the implementation of Vision 2030 economic diversification plan, signaling an encouraging environment for investment. As per the report, the mining sector in the region was one of the top economic sectors that achieved positive results during the period, with a growth rate of 33.5 percent in the final quarter of 2023 in comparison to the same period of the previous year. Tourism followed with a 25.3 percent annual rise in the last three months of 2023, with the contracting sector up 20.3 percent. The vehicle maintenance sector surged 15.6 percent, and the transportation and warehousing sector increased 15.1 percent. Private sector employment The report further revealed the Madinah region ranked sixth among the regions of the Kingdom for private sector workers, having reached 430,634 employees in the third quarter of 2023. This is a 3.6 percent share across all regions, according to the latest release of the labor market statistics issued by the General Authority for Statistics. The data also disclosed that the percentage of workers subject to the rules and regulations of social insurance in the private sector is about 83.62 percent of the total workers in Madinah. In addition to this, the number of Saudis employed in the private sector in the region reached 88,297 during the third quarter of 2023, with 24.5 percent of those subject to social insurance laws.