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Construction firms in Saudi Arabia must register with a new contracting body approved by the government or they could be banned from public projects, a newspaper in the world's largest oil exporter said on Thursday.
Nearly 140,000 contracting companies, mostly small units, operate in the Gulf kingdom but the bulk of them are not registered with the Saudi Contractors' Authority (SCA) that was created in 2016 to manage the domestic construction sector.
The Arabic language daily Aleqtisadiah quoted SCA chairman Osama Al-Afaliq as saying all contractors must register with SCA after the end of the Moslem Eid Al Fitr holiday within two weeks.
"Registration with SCA will become compulsory for all contracting companies in Saudi Arabia after the end of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday…companies which fail to register could be deprived of government contracts," he said.
He said registered firms would also be listed in the Investment and Commerce Ministry, adding that nearly 95 percent of the construction firms in the kingdom are small, with a workforce of below 50.
He said the decision to make registration compulsory is intended to regulate the sector and upgrade the performance of contracting firms in Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy with a population of around 31 million.
© Zawya 2017
