TAIF, 30 September — The effect of globalization on Saudi economy as well as the global and regional challenges to the Kingdom’s drive to attract foreign investment are high on the agenda of the sixth Saudi businessmen’s conference opened here yesterday.
On behalf of Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed inaugurated the two-day event at Taif Inter.Continental.
More than 1,000 delegates including government officials and economic experts are taking part. The conference is scheduled to discuss new strategies to attract foreign investment in the face of regional and international competition.
The opening session was attended by Commerce Minister Osama Faqeeh, Labor and Social Affair Minister Dr. Ali Al-Namlah, Deputy Minister of Industry and Electricity Saleh Al-Hosaini and Ismail Abu Dawood, chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers.
Abu Dawood underscored the economic reforms introduced by the Kingdom in recent months to strengthen the private sector. In this respect, he referred to the new foreign investment law and the establishment of the Supreme Commission for Tourism.
Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Kamal, chairman of the Taif Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the event will be a good opportunity for government officials and economic experts to exchange ideas to boost the economy. The conference will debate three working papers. The first paper will focus on developing the private sector to confront the challenges of economic globalization. The second will deal with the effect of regional and international competition to attract investment. The effect of globalization and WTO membership on the national economy will be the theme of the third paper.
The conference will review plans to put more Saudis in the job market over the coming years. The government has already taken steps to fix the percentage of Saudi workers that national companies are required to employ each year and set up a special manpower development fund. There are at present more than four million foreign workers in the Kingdom, whom the government wants to gradually replace with Saudi citizens.
The sixth conference comes at a time when the government intends to privatize some of its vital institutions.
An important paper to be discussed at the conference will be a development strategy to be formulated with additional stress on the need for broadening and diversifying the revenue base without depending much on oil.
