Saudi Arabia has unveiled new rules in its project-awarding practice in a bid to tackle persistent project delays, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The new measures affect the “contracts and government procurements” system and are intended to speed up project execution in the world’s largest oil exporter, Arabic language daily Aliqtisadia said.

The paper quoted government sources as saying that the new rules stipulate that any public establishment embarking on a project must “prepare the project site” to ensure it is ready to be delivered to the contractor before the contract is awarded.

“This new rule, which is part of comprehensive amendments in the contract and government procurement system, is aimed at avoiding project delays and ensuring timely execution of public projects,” the report said.

“The government aims to ensure that the private sector will receive a qualified project site so that it can launch the project on time and execute it according to the plan.”

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Bhaskar Raj)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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