Jeddah, August 02: Over seven hundred local and international companies are participating in the three-day program under the theme “financial leasing from the legal perspective.”
The program, which began on Saturday, aims to discuss the importance of establishing specialized leasing companies to facilitate local and foreign investment in the Kingdom.
Considered the first legal training program in the Kingdom, it is being held under the supervision of the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training and organized by Al-Moor Center for Training in Jeddah.
Dr. Fahd Al-Mushabab, President of the Scientific Program Committee and member of the Arbitration Center of the GCC countries, shed light on the importance of having financial leasing companies. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in need of such a financial leasing system as it is expected that the annual revenue for the manufacture of real estate loans and lease financing in Saudi Arabia during the coming few years will be in the range of $150-$180 billion. Real estate financing will reach SR70 billion in the next five years, and the proportion of real estate financing will be only four percent of GDP at the end of 2013,” he said.
The amount of real estate finance in the Kingdom, he said, has so far reached SR8 billion, up more than SR3 billion riyals over the same period last year. “That is why finance companies, bank financing programs, and working sectors are waiting for the approval of a competent authority to develop their offers,” he said.
The amount of leasing and financing in the Islamic World was more than $700 billion over the past year while it was one million dollars in Gulf states during the same period.
He noted that the annual amount of leasing in the Kingdom apart from the real estate sector is estimated at $30 billion.
The three-day program, he said, will give trainees several important opportunities in both the legal and economic sector targeting a number of companies, institutions, and funding bodies interested in leasing, as well as all the staff of companies selling and renting real estate, judges, arbitrators, lawyers, legal advisers and those in civil and commercial disputes in the government and private sector.
Dr. Hani Dwaider, an international training expert specialized in international law, said the Kingdom now has huge economic and commercial projects and definitely needs financial leasing. “It is very important to define financial leasing, its concepts, elements, types, and techniques, so this can facilitate investment opportunities for both local and international investors,” he said.
–Agencies–