meetings: ricec saudi arabia 2012
HOMELAND SECURITY IS A SECTOR WITH FURTHER EVENTS POTENTIAL
market potential to overseas manufacturers who in turn look at the possibilities of estab- lishing their presence here. We have seen several joint ventures that were initiated at trade shows and are successfully operating in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia ranks 11th among 183 countries for ease of doing business and tops the list for the MENA region as per IFF/World Bank ranking. This is a clear indication that the best business environ- ment, availability of energy and a larger consumer base would attract more and more manufacturers and industrialists to the Kingdom.
The country is already a leading destina- tion for Foreign Direct Investment. All these achievements indicate that there is a ma- ture marketplace on offer and the competi- tion is growing within the industrial sector giving way to more and more refinement in production and service processes.
RICEC CEO ABDULLAH AL OMRAN
What will be the role of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) in the development of a more complex marketplace in the Kingdom? Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) is a backbone of any economy and our national economy is no exception. The Large Enterprise (LE) in the Kingdom is normally connected with a cluster of SMEs to form an effective supply chain. Over 93 percent of our businesses is SME by EU definition. However, unlike more developed economies, our SME contribution to GDP is merely 33 percent. In Europe, SMEs contribute 65% percent to the EU's combined GDP. There is an obvious gap to be filled up by our insti- tutions. The large retail sector in the country is almost all SMEs represent- ing the consumers' buying power and these SMEs remain a very important ele- ment in the marketplace. Owing to their first-hand knowledge of consumers' choice criteria and habits, they dictate what manufacturers have to produce for the national market. The service sector also has a very large presence of SMEs all with the ability to compete with international names with person- alisation and cost-effectiveness. RICEC has several events planned which specifically cater to the SME sec- tor. One of our programmes includes working with some SME development agencies in Europe and ASEAN to launch country-specific events with match mak- ing to encourage a transaction between our SMEs and their foreign counterparts.
Which industries and sectors have been identified with greater potential to exhibit in the Kingdom? The entire concept of organising an event is to explore new ideas that would be innovative for a target group of buyers and suppliers to meet and transact business. We are living in a very interesting era. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has radically changed the way nations trade today and develop their national industries amid global competition. Saudi Arabia fortunately has a sizeable domestic market, ample energy supply and a very suitable investment environment. These have led to a range of industrial sectors for potential investment. After gaining critical mass from the domestic industrial sectors, there are now many event organisers who have introduced shows in the consumer-goods category. Although there are a few capital goods shows which depend largely on show- casing the national operators, there is a need to introduce events now of a more international appeal.
The sectors that have a large market size in the Kingdom include: homeland security, alternate energy, education, national career development, logistics and transportation, automation, construction, health and reha- bilitation, food production and processing etc. We are actively seeking international collaborations to offer some leading events covering some of these topics.
What steps need to be taken to transform Saudi Arabia into a regional business meeting point?
The first and foremost is to offer value-driven events in the Kingdom. We opened our doors in March 2009 and have seen a two-fold growth in the number of events to be held at RICEC till 2011. The Ministry of Commerce issued 187 licences for the events to be held in Riyadh in 2011, as opposed to 125 in 2010, a significant year-on-year growth. However, we held some 35 events last year, despite the huge demand, because we are selective when it comes to the value offered by the event to the participants.
Most of the events that are held at RICEC are international in terms of both exhibitors and visitors. We still haven't reached a desired level of the international content in all the shows, but the number of overseas participants is constantly increas- ing. A recent survey indicated that over 50 percent of exhibitors at trade shows held at the RICEC in 2011 were from countries outside the MENA region.
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