On 7 September 2021, the Council of Ministers released a Resolution on the establishment of a "Permanent Ministerial Committee for the Examination of Foreign Investment". The Committee is tasked to identify on an ongoing basis sensitive and strategic sectors or companies in which foreign investments may affect national security or public order. Foreign investments in those sectors or companies will be subject to examination and potentially restrictions" (Unctad, 2021).
"The Council of Ministers [...] decides the following:
First: Formation of a permanent ministerial committee under the name (the permanent ministerial committee for examining foreign investments) headed by His Excellency the Minister of Investment [...], examine foreign investment requests, evaluate them, and decide on them based on Standards relating to security or public order. In order to achieve this, the committee performs the following:
1- Identifying the sensitive and strategic sectors that affect security or public order, directly or indirectly, and constantly updating them.
2- Determining the upper limit for direct and indirect foreign investors' ownership of shares or stocks of Saudi companies operating in sensitive and strategic sectors, or instruments and convertible securities issued by these companies - in coordination with the concerned authorities - in a manner that does not contradict the relevant statutory provisions. Relationship and international obligations of the Kingdom.
3- Establishing the controls, conditions and procedures necessary to decide on requests for foreign investors to own the shares or stocks of Saudi companies operating in sensitive and strategic sectors, or the instruments and securities convertible to capital issued by these companies, provided that these controls, conditions and procedures take into account the potential impact of the ownership request on security or public order.
4- Deciding on the request of the foreign investor to own the shares or stocks of Saudi companies operating in the sensitive and strategic sectors, or the instruments and securities convertible to capital issued by these companies, either by approval, rejection, or conditional approval, in accordance with the terms and conditions stipulated. and the procedures referred to in Paragraph (3) of this clause, provided that a representative from the authority concerned with regulating the activity related to the ownership request participates in discussing and voting on these requests.
5- Developing and updating a list of individuals or companies that are prohibited from investing in the Kingdom for considerations of protecting security or public order, in coordination with the concerned authorities.
6- Request any information, data, reports, statistics or visuals - from all ministries and other government agencies - as required by the nature of their work.
7- Invite any of the government agencies, and seek assistance from specialists and advisors, to attend its meetings without having the right to vote.
8- Forming committees and work teams as it deems appropriate and assigning them the necessary powers to carry out the tasks entrusted to them.
Second: The committee referred to in Clause (First) of this decision agrees with the Capital Market Authority to set the necessary controls, procedures and conditions for how and the mechanism for examining investment requests in securities listed in the financial market issued by Saudi companies operating in sensitive and strategic sectors, in case it is Approval of the application would lead to owning a controlling stake in any of these companies, provided that those controls, procedures and conditions are agreed upon and implemented within a period not exceeding (two years) from the date of the commencement of the committee's work.
[...]
Fifth: Amendment of Article (Third) of the Foreign Investment Law, issued by Royal Decree No. (M/1) dated 1/5/1421 AH, amended by Cabinet Resolution No. (264) dated 5/16/1440 AH, to be as follows: "The committee is concerned with Permanent Ministerial Committee to examine foreign investments by issuing a list of the types of activities excluded from foreign investment.[...]" (Cabinet Resolution No. (83) dated 01/30/1443 AH [17-9-2021] on Forming a ministerial committee and amending Article (3) of the foreign investment system [google translation])

Cabinet Resolution No. (83) dated 01/30/1443 AH [17-9-2021] on Forming a ministerial committee and amending Article (3) of the foreign investment system
[<a href="https://uqn.gov.sa/?p=7589">Decree</a>],[<a href="https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/investment-policy-monitor/measures/3752/saudi-arabia-introduces-screening-of-foreign-investment-in-sensitive-and-strategic-sectors">Other</a>]