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SETTING UP IN SAUDI ARABIA WITH SAUDI ARABIA BECOMING AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT MARKET FOR THE REGION’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY, ILEA MIDDLE EAST’S LEGAL BOARD ADVISOR AND PARTNER AT CHARLES RUSSELL SPEECHLYS, MARK HILL, LAYS OUT THE LEGAL DOS AND DON’TS FOR OPERATING IN THE KINGDOM.
With a huge influx of cultural events backed by massive investment and underpinned by the country’s 2030 Vision, Saudi Arabia is very much a topic on the lips of everyone in the Middle East’s production and events industry. It’s no surprise, then, that the Kingdom was the subject of the latest ILEA Expert Session. Taking place on 8 September, Setting Up and Operating in Saudi Arabia in the Events and Production Space saw ILEA Middle East’s Legal Board Advisor and Partner at Charles Russell Speechlys, Mark Hill, deliver an educational look at what UAE-based companies should think about when operating in the country. Speaking to TPMEA after the session, Hill reflected on the event’s stronger-than-expected take-up. “We sent off the invites thinking that we might have eight to 10 people and we ended up with around 35,” he began. “The demand for what was intended to be a small and intimate session is
clearly there. Legal contracting, how to operate effectively in the production and events space and how to get into new territories and markets properly are subjects on everybody’s mind at the moment.” Touching on a few of the topics covered in the session, Hill commented that the best route into operating in the Kingdom “for 90% of companies”, is to launch a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or branch. “Most people are looking at going down those routes these days,” he said. Other possible routes into Saudi Arabia are Temporary Commercial Registration (TCR) and Technical Services Office (TSO), however, according to Hill, in most cases these options are, “too limited”. He commented: “A TCR is project specific, so it will only work in certain contexts. A TSO would be oriented towards doing nothing more than supporting promotional activity, so it’s really a bar to being able to engage directly in
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