Saudi Arabia's First Special Economic Zone -ILBZ's Main Regulations

ILBZ – Saudi Arabia’s first integrated logistics zone in Riyadh is recently launched by GACA as the inaugural project in a series of planned special logistics zones. This is set up to support His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision to make it one of the 10 largest city economies in the world. This will help to make the Kingdom a globally competitive transportation and logistics hub for the movement of goods and services around the world, within a progressive business-friendly environment. SEZ will offer incentives to companies to establish operations at its site adjacent to the international airport in Riyadh along with incentives such as:

• 100% suspension of customs and import restrictions
• No restrictions on capital repatriation.
• 50-year Tax Holiday to include VAT suspension while under customs suspension;
• Zero-rated corporate, income and withholding tax on certain payments;
• 100% business ownership 

The zone is strategically located to serve more than 650 million customers across Africa, Asia and Europe, linking them through King Khalid International Airport as well as the domestic and regional markets via the Saudi Land-Bridge Railway crossing Riyadh, and dry ports surrounding King Khalid International Airport. The zone is spread over an area of 3 million-square-meters. This will be a great step as the zone will offer facilities such as: 

• Aviation facilities and Cargo handling
• Government-sponsored training programs advanced cargo-tracking technology
• A Government Services Office in the ILBZ to serve as a one-stop-shop to obtain any government services for the investors.

This is considered as the first important step towards developing the logistics sector and special economic zones in Saudi Arabia as it competitively positions itself as a global transportation and logistics hub.