<Dl> <Dt> Bureaucracy </Dt> </Dl> <P> A business journalist (Karen House) criticizing the Saudi bureaucracy complained that someone seeking to start a business in Saudi Arabia </P> <P> has to complete innumerable applications and documents at multiple layers of multiple ministries, which invariably requires seeking favors from various patronage networks and accumulating obligations along the way, most probably including having to hire less - than - competent dependents of his patrons . Then, for any business of any size, government contracts, not private competition, are the financial lifeblood . So this means more patrons, more favors, and more obligations . Not surprisingly, Saudi businesses that can compete outside the protected Saudi market are few . </P> <Dl> <Dt> Corruption </Dt> </Dl>

What is the economy like in saudi arabia