About us

The American Business Association - Eastern Province (ABA-EP) was founded in 1976 through cooperation between the US Consulate & several leading US companies who were working in Saudi Arabia at the time including ACBI (now McDermott); Fluor Engineering; Bechtel Engineering; Ameron: and others. The “mission” of the organization is the same today as the day it was founded…to promote US business interests and beneficial trade relations between the USA & KSA; to foster relationships with our Saudi partners and hosts; and to foster long-standing friendships between our 2 countries. Over the 42 years since there has been a world of change in the world but the friendships; partnerships: and trade relations remain strong. The ABA-EP is a volunteer organization and, as with any volunteer organization, we have had our ups & downs. As we enter 2019 looking forward to Vision 2030 we invite ALL US business interests to join us again to continue our work towards our mission.

During the history of the ABA-EP there have been many accomplishments…ABA-EP was one of the founding members of the American Business Councils of the Gulf Countries (ABCGC) which is now the Middle East Council of American Chambers of Commerce (MECACC). ABA-EP has advocated for (along w/ ABCGC / MECACC) for many years in Washington to support US company & US individual competitiveness in the global marketplace…this advocacy resulted in the change to the rules for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion in the late 1990’s and the Territorial Taxation Rules for US Companies in 2018. The ABA-EP has advocated for support for US Standards in the SASO system (although the success of our advocacy has not been followed through by Washington) - and this lack of follow through has impacted US exports to the area.

There are many other accomplishments that the volunteers of the ABA-EP have made over the years - and we feel there are more challenges to overcome as we move into the future.

As mentioned we invite ALL US businesses to volunteer to support these efforts. If you or your company would like to know more please let us know through the
“contact us” page herein.