MAKKAH, 27 December 2006 — A recent survey in the Mina area has shown that temporary trading pitches, licensed to Saudis, are being sold to non-Saudis for exorbitant prices on a burgeoning black market.
Al-Madinah newspaper reported that Saudis applied for permits and then sold them on to foreign nationals — mainly Asians — to save the headache of working for themselves. The newspaper estimated that the non-Saudi businessmen would earn up to ten times their investment in a permit.
The Makkah municipality rented the spaces at a relatively low price on the condition that Saudi applicants owned bona fide businesses.
More than 420 Saudis applied for these locations, which were distributed between them. Once the draw and the distribution of these spaces was completed, foreigners badgered the permit holders to sell the permits to them.
The Saudis, the newspaper said, had no idea of the profits to be made from the business that could be done from the spaces and sold the permits at a fraction of the price they could have earned from trading during the boom season. A source at the Makkah municipality said that they would not check on who was actually trading on the permitted spaces. He said that the municipality’s job ended when it handed the permit to the Saudi applicant.
