Saudi Arabia: New ministers and budget

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz announced the largest budget in the history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The dazzling nature of this budget reflects Saudi Arabia’s endeavour to continually develop its human resources and infrastructure.  The two most important figures to be announced are the projected revenue of 702 billion Saudi Riyals [SR]; whilst the budget itself stands at SR 690 billion.  The health, educations and housing sectors are all allocated the largest portion of the budget, in order to cope with the needs and requirements of the Kingdom and its population during the coming period.  In addition to this, King Abdullah also instructed that SR 250 billion of the budget surplus be transferred to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Fund.

This historic budget is larger than the previous budget by around SR 110 billion, because it incorporates several new important projects which are required in a number of different sectors.   This budget also takes into consideration the geographic distribution of projects in order to provide the maximum possible benefit to the people of Saudi Arabia. In addition, King Abdullah also issued a decree instructing that a separate and considerable portion of the budget be allocated to the construction of 500,000 housing units in order to meet the Saudi Arabian people’s housing needs.

What drew the attention of observers was the fact that King Abdullah instructed that these funds be disbursed before the end of the current fiscal year, so that the people of Saudi Arabian can benefit from this as soon as possible.  He also linked this issue with increased backing to sustainable development and job-creation.

Just a few days before he announced this historic budget, Custodian of the two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah also implemented an important cabinet mini-reshuffle, bringing in new, young, and promising ministers to assume senior positions. For example, Dr. Tawfeeq Al-Rabee’a was appointed the new Minister of Commerce and Industry.  Al-Rabee’a is known for his success in implementing the concept of “industrial estates and technology zones”, establishing these in different cities in a careful and scientific manner.  In his new position, he will most likely focus on the industrial sector in order to provide more job opportunities to Saudi citizens.

The same applies to the Ministry of Civil Service, whose operations stagnated for some time, however Dr. Abdulrahman Albarak has been appointed the new Minister of Civil Service in order to revive this ministry, and end the state of frustration that is felt by all those who deal with it.  As for the Ministry of Hajj, Bandar al-Hajjar has been appointed the new Minister of Hajj due to his experience, wisdom, and organizational skills.  This position will suit his abilities, particularly in view of the nature of this ministry that must constantly expand and develop in order to meet the growing requirements of pilgrims throughout the year.  The Ministry of Education was also reinforced with the appointment of two professional figures, namely [new Deputy Minister of Education] Dr. Khalid al-Sabti and [new Deputy Minister of Education for Boys Affairs] Dr. Hamad al-Sheikh.  They will both offer genuine support and assistance to the Ministry of Education.

As for the most notable cabinet reshuffle, this was the appointment of Fahad al-Mubarak as the new Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency [SAMA], a decision that was warmly greeted by the financial sector.  In fact, many people were reassured by al-Mubarak’s appointment, for he is a professional banker who is known for his knowledge, focus, and drive.  His job will be to open up the “closed” international world of banking to Saudi banks, allowing them to financially compete, after they failed to support and fund medium and small projects.  Similarly, the Development Bank had also failed to perform, and has simply shifted into another commercial bank. The new governor will be required to take into consideration, in all his operations, the fact that Saudi Arabia is one of the major G20 economies, as is known to everyone.  He therefore resigned from two positions in two separate corporations in order to avoid any conflict of interests.  The general public will be anticipating extremely accurate data and statistical reports from SAMA, in a manner that reflect the true size of inflation and growth in a clear and transparent manner.

The recent Cabinet shake-up and the significant and historic budget are both promising and encouraging signs for Saudi Arabia.  We are, therefore, hopeful that everyone will be able to put this into action on the ground in a speedy and effective manner, as this is in everyone’s best interests.