Under the patronage of the Prince of the Eastern Region.
Asharqia Chamber launches the activities of the Eastern Region Economic Forum 2017.
Al Ghafees: There is a big response in the labor market and a big role
played by the private sector in following the national options.
Al Amoudi: The sectors that are currently being privatized are airports, followed by ports and railways.
Al Ataishan: Adopting a "public and private" partnership model that
explores challenges and redefines the opportunities of the local
component.
Under
the patronage of the Prince of the Eastern Region, His Royal Highness
Prince Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz, the Undersecretary of the Eastern
Region, His Excellency Dr. Khaled bin Muhammed Al Batal, the activities of the Eastern Economic Forum
2017 were launched on
Wednesday November 8, 2017 At the the Sheraton Hotel in Dammam, amid a
huge presence of government officials, businessmen and specialists in
economic affairs and will continue until Thursday.
Partnership Directions
In
his speech, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Asharqia
Chamber, Abdulrahman bin Saleh Al Ataishan, praised the Forum and His
Highness keenness to support the private sector and its issues in
various fields as well as its continuous support for all the initiatives
and efforts of the Chamber as part of its efforts to serve the national economy.
The
government adopted in April last year the vision of the Kingdom of
2030. The diversification of national income sources aims to increase
non oil revenues to more than SR 1 trillion per year, to reach the contribution of the business sector in the gross
domestic product to 65%, noting that although nearly a year and a half
to put forward such ideas and plans, the indicators are optimistic
about the recovery of the future prospects.
According
to official statistics, the private sector according to the official
statistics achieved in the second quarter of 2017 a rise in its value in
the production gross of current prices by 0.44% compared to the same quarter of
2016, and increased its value at constant prices by 0.38%, as well as
the increase in revenues of small enterprises and intermediate in the first quarter of 2017, 5.9% for small and
8.6% for medium, and exports of goods and services increased by 7.83%
during the second quarter of 2017, and many other figures and statistics
that confirm the integrity of the road.
Effective channels
Al Ataishan pointed to the initiatives and projects, the huge Red Sea project and the strategic
development project south-west of Riyadh, and urged the national
business sector to be ready to participate in this historical moment of
the Renaissance.
The model within the context of economic transformation
suggests that it is important to explore challenges, propose solutions
and redraft opportunities by optimizing the local component and
integrating efforts to open new horizons for sustainable progress, but an attempt to find effective channels between the public and
private sectors in order to achieve constructive dialogue, which in turn
promote the partnership between the two sectors, hoping that this
forum will develop clear foundations for a distinguished partnership
between the public and private sectors and the aspirations of the broad diversification of the sources of
wealth and the sustainability of development and then put the Kingdom
on a sustainable way of economic progress .
Reducing unemployment
The
Minister of Labor and Social Development, Ali bin Nasser Al Ghafees,
stressed that the Government of the have paid great importance to its Vision 2030 on how to achieve
economic development and prosperity, focusing of our approach to supporting our small and
medium institutions and productive families, attracting the talent
we need, learning to work and developing our opportunities.
One of the most important goals to be achieved, he said:
These "fruitful opportunities" to reduce the unemployment rate to 7%,
and also maximize our investment capabilities, and we launch our
promising sectors, and allocate some of our government services.
He
pointed that there is a great response in the labor market and a
great role played by the private sector in following the national
options, especially with regard to the policy of Emiratisation, pointing
to the high participation of women in the private sector to 17%.
Employment fees
Al Ghafees
said in his talk about labor fees that the aim is to
attract outstanding talent. He pointed that 85% of expatriate
workers have the secondary school while 50% are uneducated.
"We are improving the business environment, rehabilitating
economic cities, establishing special zones, and increasing the
competitiveness of the energy sector. We aim to" attract competitiveness
"to raise the private sector's contribution to production gross to 65%, he said.
"There are serious efforts to establish a unique logistics
platform, to achieve regional and international integration, to support
our national companies, and to increase non-oil exports to at least 50
percent of non oil production gross."
Human Resources
Al Ghafees
pointed to the importance of human resources as the most valuable
resource, and every institution that works to achieve a degree of
satisfaction and motivation in these resources in order to achieve
excellence in performance and increase productivity by deepening the
value of cooperation and developing the spirit of teamwork. To
achieve the goals of the vision of the Kingdom, Al Ghafees said
that the Ministry has launched a number of initiatives supporting the
recruitment of citizens, including: (updating of the objectives of the
domains, the campaign to correct activities, creating initiatives to
develop and stimulate initiatives: In employment in the private sector, as well as support for
women's programs of work: through two programs: kura, arrival, in
addition to issuing new regulations for home incubators at workplaces).
He pointed that these initiatives in addition to other
programs and policies launched by the ministry and other government
agencies, will enable the sons and daughters of this country to obtain
decent work opportunities and achieve the objectives of unemployment and
participation in the vision of the Kingdom 2030.
The
Minister of Transportation, Dr. Nabil bin Muhammed Al Amoudi, said that when
he received the portfolio of the Ministry of Transportation about a month
ago, he faced a number of challenges which he is working to overcome.
The most important of these is obtaining the satisfaction of the
beneficiaries of the wide transport system, With
over 9 million ports of over 530 million tons per year, stressing that
the most important challenge is the aspiration of the rational
leadership and the dynamic mechanism that restructured government
agencies, not to prepare them to operate according to the vision of 2030
Ambitious I, but to meet the aspiration of a segment that makes up 70% of
our Saudi society, who are not older than 30 years, who will achieve the
dream with their leadership.
Our destination .. your destination
The
Minister of Transportation said that it is our responsibility to develop
strategic plans to improve the transport sector and make Saudi Arabia an
international logistics center linked to the world and a link to the
three continents, on
October 22nd, we launched the "Our Destination and Your Destination"
campaign to enhance the integration of different sectors of the
transport system, whether land, sea or air, in addition to the railway
sector, we need a system that works to improve the latest and best
international experiences and motivates national carriers to develop
their work mechanisms. We aim to achieve the objectives of the Kingdom to diversify the
sources of income through the development of the transport sector and
its impact on all other sectors and the growth of economic activity as a
whole, to reach an ambitious homeland, a prosperous economy and a
vibrant society.
Al Amoudi
said that the ministry is currently reviewing the current regulations
and regulations to keep pace with what the King Salman bin Abdul Aziz directed to allow women to drive,
and found that there is no discrimination against women. To implement the necessary legal controls. We also reviewed our
regulations and regulations also with a view to providing the
appropriate environment for investment in the transport sector in
general.
Structuring of departments
"We
have restructured the various transport sector departments (roads,
airports, ports and railways) to be organized to practice legislation
and control, as well as to manage operations in a professional and
similar manner to global best practices, as or
the public transport sector. In the aviation sector, we have separated
the civil aviation operations from the legislative side. The brothers in
the Civil Aviation Authority are seeking to improve 22 airports in the
different cities of the Kingdom. There are steps in the same frame and
in the final stages regarding the ports sector Thanks
to the efforts in the ports, in partnership with the
Muslim Brotherhood and the Customs Authority, and an exchange company to
reduce the shipping costs and reduce the container's stay in the ports
from 14 days to 3 days only. He pointed that the ministry hopes to
clear the goods within 24 hours, The special feet before the arrival of the ship will be less than three days).
The
Saudi Railway Company (SAAR) achieved the highest performance since its
inauguration in May 2011. It has been able to transport 452 tons of
phosphate mines in Hazm Jalamid and Waad Al Shamal and Ras Al Khair Port, an increase of 7% from the highest monthly amount transferred.
Sectors for privatization
Al Amoudi pointed that the sectors that are currently
privatized are airports, followed by ports and then railways. There are
also some ways that will be privatized, stressing that the private
sector is an Asian partner in privatization as well as a partner in
logistics projects.
Al Amoudi
concluded by saying: "We have institutionalized these businesses, known
as Corporatization, established companies that carry out all transport
operations, and are now managed by competent professionals and
independent boards of directors, operating in a purely commercial
manner. These companies will be subsequently offered to local and
international investors to invest immediately. We have recently held a workshop on privatization opportunities in
railways, and we continue to hold meetings with local and international
investors to introduce them to the investment purpose in different
transport sectors.
The
forum will be held on Thursday from 9 am to 2 pm and will include three
sessions, the first titled "The Role of Economic Integration in
Achieving Balanced Development", and the second session titled
"Prospects for the sustainability of the construction industry", and the third and final session is titled (Ways to enhance business competitiveness).
