Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman has been leading a huge media, political, and investment campaign, in order to convince multinational companies, such as Google to Siemens, to move their headquarters from Dubai to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
The Crown Prince’s campaign is part of a broad initiative called: The Headquarters of the Program, where he announced that it would provide encouraging incentives for these companies if they invest and move their main offices to the Saudi city of Riyadh, otherwise, the punishment would be depriving them of working in Saudi Arabia, as well as depriving them of technology, information, financial and oil services, according to the British Financial Times newspaper.
The newspaper said that the goal behind the initiative of the Saudi crown prince is what the Saudi government announced, is to encourage foreign investment and support the ambitious vision of the Saudi crown prince to make turn the Kingdom into a major regional business center for all the world's leading companies, in all fields.
The Target is Dubai
The campaign led by the Saudi Crown Prince showed how the Kingdom, which is the largest economic market in the Gulf, and the largest economy as well, is exploiting its financial influence in intense competition with Dubai, which is currently the regional center of trade, finance, and tourism in the Gulf. This step comes to overcome the effects of the spread of the Coronavirus and the significant deterioration in oil prices. The Saudi Crown Prince is trying hard to attribute any success to Vision 2030, although all major companies operating in the Gulf region have headquarters in the UAE.
A Saudi consultant said that it is more like an untapped person, referring to the companies being contacted. Other officials also said that Saudi Arabia wants to attract groups to the King Abdullah Financial District, a huge development project that includes 59 skyscrapers in north Riyadh that lack tenants.
Three advisers also said the incentives of the offer include 50-year tax-free, waivers for Saudis' employment quotas – which have proven to be a burden for companies – and guarantees against future regulations.
Nevertheless, officials emphasized that the companies were tepid toward “the headquarters program” as they balanced the fallout of relocating top CEOs from Dubai, which is more liberal and outgoing with modern infrastructure including good schools, with the need to appease influential Saudi officials. Various business companies are considering moving their different business units and maybe regional management to Riyadh to allay Saudi concerns.
