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The Commerce Ministry issued over 154k new commercial licenses in 1Q 2025, marking a 48.7% increase compared to the same period in 2024, according to the ministry’s quarterly business sector summary bulletin (pdf). The Kingdom implemented over 900 reforms to facilitate business operations, along with reviewing and updating more than 1.2k regulations.
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The overall picture: The Kingdom now boasts more than 1.68 mn active commercial registrations, up 4.5% y-o-y. Women took the lead, accounting for 47% of existing licenses, while youth-led ventures amounted to 38% of all registrations. We now host 447k registered companies and 1.2 mn commercial establishments, the bulletin read.
By region: Riyadh, Makkah, and the Eastern Province combined accounted for 71% of all of the issued commercial registrations for companies. Riyadh alone saw 60k new registrations, followed by Makkah with 26.3k, and the Eastern Province with 24.8k.
MEANWHILE- LLCs accounted for the majority of new company registrations (37.1k), with far fewer opting for general partnerships (123) and joint stock companies (103), the bulletin showed.
Promising sectors: The report flagged strong momentum in several high-growth sectors during the quarter, particularly non-residential construction with 116k licenses (+11% y-o-y), car services with 25.6k licenses (+23% y-o-y), and hotel registrations with 15k licenses (+31% y-o-y). Other sectors that showed strong momentum include travel agencies (+29% y-o-y), reality technologies (+39% y-o-y), film and video production (+24% y-o-y), cloud computing (+33% y-o-y), and telemedicine (+37% y-o-y).
AND- Saudi Arabia ranked among the top 10 fastest-growing e-commerce markets, standing at 41.3k existing registrations in 1Q 2025, up 6% y-o-y.
REMEMBER- The updated Commercial Registration and Trade Name Laws, set to take effect in early 2Q 2025, introduced key changes, including a unified national commercial register, a ban on duplicate trade names across sectors, and the inclusion of non-Arabic and alphanumeric characters, among others. The Cabinet signed off on the laws in September. Full details are available in our explainer.
