Economic Cities and Special Zones Authority (ECZA)

The Economic Cities and Special Zones Authority, abbreviated as (ECZA), is a regulatory and development entity for economic cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is tasked with the full financial and administrative supervision of economic cities, establishing the organizational structure, and issuing regulations, policies, and standards regulating economic cities. The authority has a legal personality and is financially and administratively independent. Its headquarters is based in King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh Governorate.

The ECZA was established by a Royal Decree in 2010. In 2019, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz issued a Royal Order amending the organizational structure of the Economic Cities Authority, assigning it the responsibility for special economic zones, and changing its name to become the Economic Cities and Special Zones Authority to achieve its targets. These are localizing national capital, attracting foreign investments, and implementing economic and social development plans in the Kingdom.

ECZA undertakes the task of providing all government services to economic cities and special economic zones investors, residents, workers, and visitors of economic cities and special zones with high efficiency through the Integrated Government Services Center, in accordance with the one-stop-shop principle. The authority contributes to achieving the goals of Saudi Vision 2030. It achieves this by developing and implementing innovative business models in partnership with the private sector, and providing government support and empowerment, through strategic initiatives and projects to enhance the competitiveness and attractiveness of the investment environment in economic cities and special economic zones, and aiming to attract value-added investments and generate job opportunities for the sons and daughters of the Kingdom.

The authority works in accordance with a strategy that aims to transform the Kingdom into an attractive global hub for quality investments. It seeks to establish standards and measures to ensure the provision of an attractive living environment that guarantees the residents and workers of economic cities and special economic zones, a high-quality life in an elevated manner.

Economic cities are integrated cities that include major industrial and service sectors, such as manufacturing, logistics, tourism, entertainment, and others. The Kingdom has launched the economic cities project to enhance economic and social growth, and enable the private sector to play its role in supporting the national economy. Economic cities have thus become one of the models that embody the Saudi Vision 2030 with their contribution to the development process, based on the principle of partnership between the state and the private sector.

Special economic zones are specific areas in the Kingdom, where trade and business legislation and laws (such as taxes, labor laws, customs, and property laws) differ from the rest of the zones. The main goal of their establishment is to accelerate the attraction of foreign investments, by granting them special incentives and exceptions for the purpose of exporting to global markets through their three types: industrial areas, service areas, and specialized areas.

The authority has launched up to four economic zones until 2023, which are; the Special Economic Zone of King Abdullah Economic City, the Ras al-Khair Special Economic Zone, the Jazan Special Economic Zone, and the Cloud Computing Special Economic Zone.

In order to enhance the Kingdom’s efforts to attract local and foreign investments, and achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 in growth and diversification of the economy, the economic cities, under the supervision of the authority, worked to attract more than SAR51.2 billion of private sector investment, create more than eleven thousand jobs, and provide accommodation for more than nine thousand residents.