The Ministry of Trade and Industry is an agency which regulates the businesses of the country and issues official documentations to business people wanting to start a business after first obtaining a commercial registration certificate. SAGIA is an agency which promotes and encourages foreign investors to invest in the country. Large scale corporations from the USA, Japan and the UK have invested in oil, petrochemicals and mining in the country (Zuhur, 2005).

Economy

In 1933, Saudi Arabia granted oil concessions to the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASCO), an affiliate of Standard Oil of California (SOCAL, today’s Chevron). Oil prospecting began on the Kingdom’s east coast. After six years (1939), the first tanker load of petroleum was exported. In 1944, the Saudi government became a partner in the company and so it changed its name to the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco). In 1945, Saudi Arabia’s government acquired a 25 per cent participation interest in Aramco and in 1980 the Saudi government acquired 100 per cent participation interest, purchasing almost all of the company’s assets. In 1988, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, or Saudi Aramco, was established. Now, more than 95 per cent of all Saudi oil is produced on behalf of the Saudi government by the parasternal giant Saudi Aramco. In June 1993, Saudi Aramco absorbed the State Marketing and Refining Company (SAMAREC), becoming the world’s largest fully integrated oil company. Most Saudi oil exports move by tanker from the Gulf terminals of RasTanura and Ju’aymah. The remaining oil exports are transported via the east-west pipeline which runs across the Kingdom to the Red Sea port of Yanbu (http://www.saudiaramco.com, 2010).