Great emphasis is placed on personal relationships between associates. Saudi businessmen will always prefer to do business with people they are familiar with, and who they feel they can trust. For this reason, nepotism is a characteristic feature of the Saudi business world and is viewed as both natural and advantageous. Expats will also have to remain patient during their first business meetings with new Saudi partners.
A significant chunk of time will be devoted to getting to know each other before any actual business is conducted. The forging of long-term, personal business relationships in Saudi Arabia is best considered an investment.
The management style that predominates Saudi Arabia is paternalistic and strictly hierarchical. Decisions are made at the top level and clear, direct instructions are then filtered down. Business etiquette in Saudi Arabia reflects an intimate relationship between spiritual, personal and professional life. When greeting new associates, handshakes are common between men. To show the necessary respect, expats should start with the most senior person present.
Physical contact between unrelated men and women in public is frowned upon. Eye contact is also extremely important in Saudi Arabia and is often considered an indicator of sincerity. However, women should avoid direct eye contact with men they are unfamiliar with.
There is a clear and massive gulf between fundamentalist Islamic culture and modern Western culture. However, so long as expats conduct themselves appropriately and respect the beliefs and traditions of their hosts, they will be treated warmly and with true hospitality while in Saudi Arabia.
Do make an effort to engage with the culture — learn some Arabic words and learn about the religion. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the buyer or the seller, their agents if an agent is legally or in practice required with external parties.
The total number of days required to register property. The measure captures the median duration that property lawyers, notaries or registry officials indicate is necessary to complete a procedure.
Cost is recorded as a percentage of the property value, assumed to be equivalent to 50 times income per capita. Only official costs required by law are recorded. The quality of land administration index has five dimensions: reliability of infrastructure, transparency of information, geographic coverage, land dispute resolution, and equal access to property rights.
Measures on credit information sharing and the legal rights of borrowers and lenders are shown below. The Legal Rights Index ranges from , with higher scores indicating that those laws are better designed to expand access to credit. The Credit Information Index measures the scope, access and quality of credit information available through public registries or private bureaus. It ranges from , with higher values indicating that more credit information is available from a public registry or private bureau.
This index measures the degree to which collateral and bankruptcy laws protect the rights of borrowers and lenders and thus facilitate lending. This index measures rules and practices affecting the coverage, scope and accessibility of credit information available through either a credit registry or a credit bureau.
This indicator reports the number of individuals and firms listed in a credit registry with information on their borrowing history from the past 5 years.
This indicator reports the number of individuals and firms listed by a credit bureau with information on their borrowing history from the past 5 years. The indexes vary between 0 and 10, with higher values indicating greater disclosure, greater liability of directors, greater powers of shareholders to challenge the transaction, and better investor protection.
The extent of disclosure index measures the approval and disclosure requirements of related-party transactions. This index ranges from 0 to 10 and has five components. The extent of director liability index measures when can board members be held liable for harm caused by related-party transactions and what sanctions are available. This index ranges from 0 to 10 and has seven components.
The ease of shareholder suits index measures how likely are plaintiffs to access internal corporate evidence and recover legal expenses. This index ranges from 0 to 10 and has six components. The extent of shareholder rights index measures the role of shareholders in key corporate decisions.
This index ranges from 0 to 6 and has 6 components. The extent of ownership and control index measures the rules governing the structure and change in control of companies. This index ranges from 0 to 7 and has 7 components. The extent of corporate transparency index measures the level of information that companies must share regarding their board members, senior executives, annual meetings and audits.
Note: To score on the extent of shareholder rights, extent of ownership and control and extent of corporate transparency indices, economies must have at least ten companies offering their shares on a public exchange.
If you need consular assistance, British Embassy staff will try to visit you as soon as they are aware of the case, but in some instances Embassy staff may not be permitted to do so immediately or may have limited access.
Anyone involved in a commercial dispute with a Saudi company or individual may be prevented from leaving the country pending resolution of the dispute. Government bodies often retain passports for official purposes; sponsors also sometimes retain passports, although this is illegal. Website www. Sub Navigation Why Saudi Arabia? Doing Business in Saudi Arabia. Downloads Download this page as a PDF file. What are the challenges? Contact Form. Contact IMA.
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Updated on: August 5, August 5, Doing Business in the Middle East If you want to get ahead in an up-and-coming region, then you need to understand how business is done in the Middle East.
Timing is Key: A guide to the calendar in the Middle East One of the most basic but most easily overlooked details about business in the Middle East is the different working week.
Planning your visit to the Middle East There is much less of a divide between personal and professional life in the Arab world, and therefore personal contact and face to face communication is key. Response to above.
Keif al-haal? How to gain trust in the Arab business world Although this is changing as Arab countries gain more exposure to Western business practices, for many Arabs there is no separation between personal and professional lives, and as such, a potential business partner must also be considered a potential friend.
Meetings in the Middle East The first thing to note when getting into the nitty-gritty of meetings in the Arab world is that the concept of punctuality can be very different. Negotiations with your Arab business partners It is crucial to remember that the Arab societies were and in many ways still are traditional trading societies, and that it is therefore normal to expect a Middle Eastern businessman to drive a hard bargain.
Dress Code for business in the Middle East Businessmen visiting the Middle East can expect to dress very similarly to usual. Hospitality in Middle Eastern societies Hospitality is a key aspect of Arab culture, bound up with the honour and respect of your family.
The following tips, however, are crucial for a successful social occasion: It is usual, especially in the Gulf, for men and women to dine separately. An invitation to dinner does not necessarily include an extension of that invitation to a spouse or significant other. Punctuality is a sign of respect to your host. Do not, however, expect to eat straightaway.
It is normal for there to be a lot of talking and socialising before food is actually served. Take a small gift or token of appreciation for your host but do not take alcohol as taking alcohol into an Islamic home can cause great offence.
Follow the instructions of your host, entering a room when he indicates that you do so, and only sitting when requested. Be aware that it may be customary for the oldest person in the room to enter or sit first, so wait to be told what to do.
Be ready to sit on the floor when dining in many Middle Eastern settings, but feel free to shift position from time to time. In general, follow those around you in terms of how you sit and position yourself. In terms of acceptable conversation topics, do not bring up business unless your host does, and try to stay away from religion and politics especially Israel as topics such as these can easily cause offence.
It is usual for food to be served in the middle of the floor or table, and for everyone to help themselves from the common dish or dishes. As the guest, you may well be offered the tastiest morsels and it is polite to accept them. Do not, however, start to take food until you have been told to, as in some countries the oldest person in the room will eat first and everyone else will follow. Depending on the house and your host you may or may not be presented with cutlery.
If not, it is customary to use a piece of bread to retrieve food from the central dish and to eat the food and bread together in one. Avoid using your left hand to retrieve food from the central dish as the left hand is considered unclean in Muslim societies. Many Arabs will not allow their left hands to touch any food, but if, as a foreigner, you find it difficult to tear your bread with one hand, you can use both hands and your incompetence should be overlooked.
On this note, also avoid handing objects or business cards to Arabs using your left hand for the same reason cited above. Compliment the food and the house in general freely, but avoid complimenting individual objects with too much zeal as custom would have it that these are then presented to you as gifts. Other religious considerations when working in the Middle East Muslims are obliged to pray 5 times a day, and prayer times are announced by the call to prayer which sounds from local mosques as well as being printed in daily newspapers.
Country Specific Tips Saudi Arabia It is crucial when working in Saudi Arabia to employ a contact-sponsor with high-powered friends or relatives who can lead you to the correct partnerships for your business plan. Note that once you have employed this contact, it is extremely difficult to switch to another. Coffee is often served towards the end of a meeting to signify that proceedings are drawing to a close, and sometimes incense will be lit at this point also. Thinking is collective, orientated around the family and tribe, and a strong sense of fatalism owing to divine will is prevalent, meaning that most are happy to accept the status quo in society.
Do not expect to see many women when conducting business in Saudi, although professional Saudi women are becoming more common. The public domain is seen as a male enclave, and women are subject to many restrictions by law, such as the ban on driving. For businesswomen travelling to Saudi Arabia the long black robe known as an abaya which covers from the neck to the ankles and all the way to the wrists is mandatory.
It is also advisable to wear a headscarf, in case of an encounter with the religious police in the country. Age is directly linked to seniority and it is common to stand when someone older than you enters the room, to greet the oldest person in the room first, and to wait for the oldest person in the room to start eating before starting yourself. Be aware that owing to the large expat population in the UAE, many companies conduct business here almost entirely on Western terms, so it is important to have no preconceptions as each business will be merging local and international values in its practices.
The UAE, and in particular the emirate Dubai , are famous for its international business opportunities, and all aspects of business etiquette, including the dress code, reflect this. As a businessman or woman in the Emirates, you can largely expect to dress as you would anywhere else in the world.
Jordan When faced with a group of people, start by greeting the first person on your right and work your way around to the last person on your left. As in many Arab countries, age is linked to seniority. In general the wishes and opinions of someone older than you are adhered to.
The oldest person in the room is likely to be leading the discussion, and direct eye contact with this person is recommended. It is unusual for gifts to be exchanged at initial business meetings.
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