Coping With Saudization – Relocating Functions To The United Arab Emirates

Saudization, officially known as the Saudi nationalization scheme, is a workforce nationalization program in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is designed to attract Saudi nationals towards the private sector. The hiring of Saudi nationals has doubled in 2018 and this trend is expected to continue throughout 2019. Although Saudization holds the best intentions for the economy, workforce nationalization rules also impose challenges on investors. This legal briefing gives an overview of the possibility to relocate functions to the United Arab Emirates in order to fall outside of the scope of strict Saudization requirements.

1. What is Saudization?

Workforce nationalization was introduced for the first time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) fourth development plan of 1985.¹ 35 years later, this topic is still highly relevant.