JEDDAH: The American Embassy has been asked to ease visa procedures for Saudi businessmen and businesswomen intending to visit the United States.
Mazen Batterjee, deputy chairman of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, made the request following numerous recent complaints about the difficulties that the Kingdom’s business community faces in visiting the US in addition to the excessive checks they are subject to at US airports.
The request was made during a meeting with the Laird Treiber, counselor for economic affairs at the US Embassy. The meeting, which was held at the Businessmen’s Club on Wednesday, was attended by Veronica Scarborough, deputy US consul in Jeddah, and Courtney C. Gillespie, who is responsible for economic affairs.
The two sides discussed methods of joint cooperation, especially advancing small and medium projects and helping business people.
The US Embassy officials also received formal invites to participate in the 10th Jeddah Economic Forum that is to be held at the Jeddah Hilton on Feb. 13-16.
Batterjee praised strong Saudi-US relations, adding that the Kingdom is considered the US’ main business partner in the Middle East with the bulk of mutual trade reaching SR193.3 billion.
The deputy chairman also said the balance of trade is in the Kingdom’s favor primarily due to Saudi oil and oil related imports. He added that Saudi exports to the US were valued at SR147.4 billion while imports reached SR45.9 billion. Two-way trade grew by 20 percent from SR157 billion in 2006.
Batterjee also said that both sides are cooperating with each other on signing agreements in several business-related fields, and are to shortly turn to increasing joint investments.
On his part, Treiber said a homely Saudi business climate and a transparent system encourages American companies to participate in numerous massive projects in the Kingdom, adding that the Saudi market is presently considered one of the largest markets in the Middle East and that it enjoys great flexibility and vigor.
He also said there has been an increase in business relations between the two countries, and that an American business delegation, comprising 30 companies from the business and investment sectors, visited Jeddah and signed numerous business agreements relating to power generation, desalination, petrochemicals and civil aviation.
Treiber said several agreements worth SR22.5 billion had been signed and that they have played a big role in increasing mutual trade between the two countries.
He added that there is need for grassroots level work on improving Saudi-US relations.
