International Business

Saudia Arabia: Country Analysis

Introduction

The following brief would pertain to the country of Saudia Arabia. The aim of this article would be to highlight the potential opportunities, risks and challenges associated with the Islamic Republic. For this purpose, some of the core factors associated with international expansion of organizations pertains to addressing the political, economic, social and legal factors. Thus we would explore these factors in the context of Saudi Arabia.

Discussion

Demographics

Saudia Arabia is approximately 830,000 sq. miles. The country is the largest Arab country with respect to its expansive area size. The country has at its border: Oman, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and U.A.E (Alkhathlan, 2013). The Persian Gulf and the Red Sea also passes alongside the borders of the country. The world's second richest oil economy and sixth largest natural gas reserve base, Saudia Arabia, is an Islamic Republic founded on Wahhabism and its fundamentalist principles (Gallarotti, 2013). Thus forth, the majority of the population is Muslim. Further, the country is the first in the world to impose ban of women driving vehicles (Aljebrin, 2012).

Political Environment

The nature of political system in Saudi Arabia is of a conservative nature and it has not been able to integrate itself internationally on the basis of culture. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia has been able to wield huge amount of power in the context of Middle Eastern economies (Anon, 2012).

The government of Saudi Arabia has put extensive focus on adopting modernization and developing the infrastructure both regionally and internationally. There are diverse risks associated with the political system of Saudi Arabia. First of all, there is a huge amount of uncertainty regarding the political succession to the throne. Secondly, the role of Islamists has been highly dominant in the process of policy making and thus poses a huge barrier in effective policy making. ...