Princess Reema bint Bandar recently announced that women-owned startups now account for an impressive 40 percent of the total startups in Saudi Arabia. She serves as the Saudi Ambassador to the United States.
She disclosed this development at a recent workshop organized by the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, which is aiming to host Expo 2030.
The growing role of women
Looking at the broader picture, women are not only making a name in Saudi’s startup scene. Additionally, the participation of women in the workforce has also seen a doubling.
All this development comes as Saudi Arabia experiences robust economic growth, which is the fastest among the G20 nations. Moreover, the country’s non-oil revenues doubled and its employment rate recorded its highest figure in its history.
Read: Saudi women make strides
SME landscape in Saudi
In Saudi, the small and midsize enterprise (SME) sector plays a vital role in achieving economic prosperity.
Aligned with the goals of Saudi’s Vision 2030, this sector is envisioned to make up 35 percent of the country’s gross domestic product by the year 2030. Furthermore, it plays a pivotal role in the plan to reduce the unemployment rate from 11.6 percent to 7 percent. In addition, it could also foster an increase in women’s workforce participation from 22 percent to 30 percent.
In the second quarter of this year, the sector saw the number of SMEs surge from 1.2 million in the first quarter to 1.23 million in the second quarter (Q2). This marks a 2.6 percent growth. In particular, Riyadh emerged as a leading hub as it is home to 42.3 percent of these SMEs, according to Q2 data.
The Makkah region and the Eastern Province followed closely with 18.6 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively. The Aseer Province played host to 5.3 percent of the SMEs. Other cities collectively contributed 22.9 percent to the total.
In Saudi’s SME ecosystem, 17,888 are medium-sized companies, 152,825 are small-sized establishments, and a staggering 1.06 million are micro-sized firms.
Meanwhile, Hashim Al-Dabbagh elaborated on the factors that contributed to the SME sector’s growth. He is the acting chief executive officer of the Aseer Development Authority.
“Our nation’s advanced regulatory and legislative environment has helped to establish an investor base that believes in Saudi Arabia’s economic direction, which has resulted in unprecedented growth in the volume and quality of startup deals,” he explained.
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