The Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development recently stated that foreign investors would be allowed to be officially classified as Saudi citizens under the "Nattakat" Saudization program, a measure intended to be implemented through the "Qiwa" platform. This means that foreign investors will be treated the same as citizens when calculating the percentage of businesses that are Saudiized. "The Natakat program specifies two categories of individuals who will be considered nationals, including children of local women married to non-Saudis and widows of non-Saudi residents. Saudi citizens who work remotely will also be treated as equal to other regular local employees.
"The Qiwa platform announced that certain expatriates will be counted at a reduced rate in the Saudization calculations, including Palestinians with Egyptian passports and Baluchis, who will be counted at 0.25 of the standard expatriate rate. The employment of four Palestinians is equivalent to the employment of one non-Saudi for the purpose of the natakat calculation, provided that these categories of employees do not exceed 50 per cent of the total number of employees. This provision also extends to Burmese or Myanmar nationals, who will be counted at 0.25 of the regular expatriate rate in all areas of the Kingdom. However, Burmese nationals residing in Makkah and Madinah are exempted from this provision.
The program aims to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) as part of a push to implement Vision 2030. According to data revealed by the Saudi Ministry of Investment in February, FDI inflows into the country reached an annual growth rate of 6% in the first nine months of 2023, up from SAR 49.9 billion in the previous period.