RIYADH, 16 June 2003 — The Riyadh Economic Forum, to be inaugurated on Oct. 6 by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, will seek to promote investment in the Kingdom’s four key sectors — gas, electricity, transportation and industrial estates.
This was disclosed at a press conference by Abdulrahman Al-Jeraisy, president of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, while spelling out the objectives of the forum. All the four sectors, with their enormous growth potential, are also prime candidates for privatization.
Al-Jeraisy said the four sectors were identified on the basis of their employment potential and their strategic importance to the economy. To this end, the forum will evaluate the status of the Kingdom’s infrastructure, the means of its development, comparisons with similar countries, and the role infrastructure plays in economic development.
It will also undertake a review of the various obstacles, both regulatory and legal, that the business and financial sectors are facing, besides other shortcomings hindering economic development. Also under study will be the means by which the private sector could play a role in the modernization and development of regulations in order to achieve a real partnership between the private and public sectors in defining goals and development plans.
The forum’s mandate is to seek private sector participation in developing the national economy in order to meet economic and social challenges. These challenges include: improving personal income, increasing work opportunities, developing human resources, improving the investment climate, as well as increasing productivity and competitiveness in the light of the Kingdom’s anticipated membership in the World Trade Organization.
Dr. Abdulaziz Jazzar, chairman of the organizing committee of the REF, said there was no competition between the REF and the Jeddah Economic Forum. In fact, they would play complementary roles. The Jeddah Economic Forum had a different agenda, which attracted the attention of overseas participants, he said. The priorities of the Riyadh Economic Forum were more focused on the national economy.
Dr. Jazzar pointed out that the forum was being launched in response to Prince Abdullah’s call for the private sector to play a greater role in the development of the national economy.
The most important feature of the forum would be its encouragement to the private sector, for the first time, to present its perspectives on important economic issues and to prescribe the necessary steps to help decision makers in restructuring the Saudi economy “toward sustainable economic development,” which is the theme of the forum.
Asked about the induction of Saudi businesswomen into the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Al-Jeraisy said the chamber has set up a specialized Saudi women’s committee that was attended by some 70 businesswomen and specialists.
The RCCI president also thanked the national companies that responded to the sponsorship campaign — SABIC, STC, Saudi Research and Publishing Company, Al Moajel Group of companies, and Petrolube, as well as the companies in the process of completing their sponsorship procedures this week.
