PwC Middle East, a leading professional services company in the region, today (May 31) inaugurated its regional headquarters in Riyadh.
This comes as part of its broader commitment to the region to create 6,000 new jobs and continued investment in digital technology and environment, social and governance (ESG) capabilities.
PwC Middle East received its Regional Headquarters licence from the Ministry of Investment (MISA) and the Ministry of Commerce thus reinforcing its commitment towards Saudi Vision 2030, driving the transformation programme, and supporting ambitious local talent.
The regional headquarters programme is an initiative commissioned by MISA and the Royal Commision of Riyadh City (RCRC) requiring companies to establish a headquarters in the kingdom by January 1, 2024 and PwC Middle East now has obtained its licence ahead of time.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Minister of Investment Engineer Khalid A. Al-Falih and Dr. Hazim Zagzoog, Advisor to the Royal Court in addition to Kevin Ellis of PwC EMEA and other senior officials at Al Faisaliah hotel in Riyadh.
Al-Falih said: “I am delighted to join PwC Middle East as it inaugurates its new Regional HQ in Riyadh, which will help to build the RHQ ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and set global standards for how a professional services sector RHQ should operate."
"It is a natural continuation of a longstanding, trusted and mutually beneficial relationship and I also commend PwC on its strong record of employing more than 1,000 talented Saudis in its workforce,” he stated.
Hani Ashkar, a Senior Partner at PwC Middle East, said: “We are thrilled to have received our licence for our Regional Headquarters and are honoured to continue supporting the kingdom’s remarkable transformation, as we accelerate towards 2030 and beyond."
"At PwC Middle East, we are fully committed to supporting Saudi Arabia’s next phase of its transformational agenda as we digitise, decarbonise, localise, privatise and modernise,” he stated.
With a strong workforce of over 2,000 employees in Saudi Arabia, more than a 1,000 of whom are Saudi nationals including over 400 Saudi women, PwC Middle East is a significant contributor to talent development in the Kingdom and is committed to expanding its staffing numbers over the next three years in the region.
This year PwC Middle East has recruited more than 200 Saudi graduates, over half of whom are women.
Additionally, PwC Middle East is deeply invested in Saudisation as part of its ‘Hemam 2.0 programme’, which aims to develop and retain top national talent, empower Saudi youth and enable their professional growth, it stated.
Riyadh Al Najjar, PwC KSA Country Senior Partner and Chair of the ME Board, said: “We’re proud of our journey in Saudi Arabia for over 40 years, building trust and delivering sustained outcomes."
"We are committed to the Kingdom’s ambition and efforts as it strengthens and diversifies its economy to deliver opportunities for its people and deliver on the promise of a remarkable future,” he added.
PwC Middle East will also open a new flagship office in Riyadh, which will include an experience Centre in 2024.
As a hub for innovation and creativity, the new experience centre will provide a platform to ideate with clients and to showcase innovative products, services, and disruptive technologies to solve the region’s most pressing problems, it stated.
The Riyadh flagship office and headquarters sit at the heart of the Kingdom’s transformation and adds to PwC Middle East’s footprint of six offices across the kingdom including additional offices in Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar, Dhahran and AlUla.-TradeArabia News Service
