The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) joined the Future Projects Forum (FPF). The two-day event was held between 21 to 22 March 2022 at Hilton Granada Hotel in Riyadh. The FPF is an interactive platform that connects private and governmental project owners with contractors and interested parties with the aim of presenting their future project and mechanisms for qualification and competition.
During the FPF, ZATCA demonstrated its current and future projects in land ports, the opportunities available in these projects and their expected impact on developing ZATCA's operations and services, supporting the national economy, and serving customers and society at large.
ZATCA General Manager of Engineering Projects Eng. Fahad Almowina presented the development projects occurring in the land ports and their economic viability since FPF is deemed an initiative supporting ZATCA's strategic goals by improving the trade and transport networks. It also supports Saudi Arabia in the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI) that measures the Kingdom's role in the logistics performance efficiency.
Eng. Almowina demonstrated the advantages of the said projects: first, they improve the efficiency of customs procedures through retrofitting the ports in order to implement the international best practice customs. Secondly, the projects shall enhance the security and safety of the Kingdom's borders and improve the customer service at the port as a priority. In addition, they shall contribute to the increase in the cross-border traffic capacity.
The upcoming projects cover the following ports: Al Bathaa, Salwa, Jdeidet Aarar, Al-Rakei, Rub Al-Khali, Al-Wadiaa, Al-Haditha, Al-Dorrah, Halat Ammar, in addition to Al-Khafji Port, linking Saudi Arabia with Kuwait. Al-Khafji port was designed in accordance with ZATCA's goals, which are in line with the Saudi 2030 vision. In addition, the goals aim at improving trade, enhancing security and meeting ZATCA's aspirations about making its ports reflection to the Kingdom's image regionally and globally.
At the end of the event, Eng. Almowina reviewed the contractors' qualification mechanism to join ZATCA's projects. This allowed ZATCA to be introduced to the qualified suppliers for a particular project. The project also included steps to qualify certified contractors as well as the selection and evaluation criteria, contract procurement mechanisms and the project implementation and receipt mechanism. ZATCA follows a set of standards in project implementation and development, and adopts advanced tools to optimize the benefit from the projects, which supports its role in facilitating cross-border trade and enhancing security.