The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) has signed a mutual cooperation agreement with the Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR), with the aim of enhancing services, collaboration, and coordination in addition to enabling logistics within the bonded and re-export zone at the Riyadh dry port. This Agreement was signed in the presence of H.E. Abdullah Al-Sadhan, Vice Governor for Operations at ZATCA.

The Agreement was signed by the Vice Governor for Trade Facilitation and Customer Experience Sector, Eng. Abdullah Al-Funtukh on ZATCA part, and by the Vice President of the Shipping Sector, Eng. Bader AlAtani on SAR part.

The agreement achieves the ZATCA objectives to deliver high-efficiency custom services within the bonded zones and warehouses as these zones have a significant role in achieving flexibility in custom procedures and facilitating cross-border trade and their contribution to providing an attractive investment environment for the Kingdom. In addition, this collaboration aims to raise the efficiency of the provided services, strengthen the effectiveness of these zones, and enhance the competitiveness of the national economy.

The bonded zones allow benefiting from the capability of storing goods and containers before completing custom procedures, with the capability to provide logistics, as well as direct re-exporting. Further, these bonded zones also enable the completion of custom procedures within the region, in accordance with the bonded zones and warehouses establishment and operation rules and conditions stipulated in the Common Custom Law for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC Sates) and its Implementing Regulations.

It is worth noting that the ZATCA has taken the initiative during the past years to focus on developing bonded and re-export zones in various ports, as it recently signed cooperation agreements with a number of companies to convert the zones and warehouses affiliated with these companies into bonded and re-export zones and warehouses. This initiative will contribute to supporting the goals of Vision 2030 in transforming the Kingdom into a global platform for logistics.