JEDDAH, 5 August 2005 — The new leader of Saudi Arabia, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, is expected to forge ahead with his political, social and economic reform programs to take the Kingdom to new heights of progress and prosperity.
Abdullah, who was declared the Kingdom’s new sovereign on Monday following the demise of King Fahd, is a champion of world peace and an ardent advocate of Arab and Islamic unity. He also wants to strengthen ties with other countries.
The ruler of the world’s largest oil exporter, King Abdullah has always reiterated his country’s support to stabilize international oil market and bring down skyrocketing prices in order to protect the interests of both producers and consumers.
He launched an unprecedented crackdown on Al-Qaeda militants, blamed for a series of terrorist bombings and shootings across the Kingdom since May 2003 and won international acclaim. “We’ll flush out the deviants from the country, no matter how long it takes,” he told tribal leaders who came to voice their support for the government’s anti-terror campaign.
While he was the crown prince, Abdullah initiated a series of reforms to liberalize the state-dominated economy and speed up the Kingdom’s accession to the World Trade Organization. Saudi Arabia is expected to join the international body before the end of this year.
He shares with King Fahd the credit for holding the country’s first-ever nationwide municipal elections to pick half the members of its 178 local councils. He also took initiatives to empower women and increase job opportunities for them.
Abdullah has traveled widely to strengthen the Kingdom’s relations with other countries, emphasize Riyadh’s position on various issues and mobilize support for Arab and Islamic causes, most importantly the Palestinian issue.
He was successful in bringing Saudi-US ties back to normal.
In April this year, Abdullah met US President George W. Bush at his Texas ranch and discussed major issues including Palestine and Iraq as well as ways of strengthening bilateral relations.
While in the US, Abdullah invited American businessmen to invest in Saudi Arabia, especially in its gas and mining sectors. “Economic reforms in the Kingdom have created a new investment-friendly environment that welcomes investors,” he said.
Abdullah later sent a 50-member Saudi trade mission to the United States to promote investment projects worth SR2.33 trillion ($623 billion) in natural gas, petrochemicals, water, electricity and other vital sectors. The delegation had a good reception in the five US states it visited.
The Middle East peace plan endorsed by the Arab League summit in Beirut was originally proposed by Abdullah to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. His peace proposal offers Israel normal ties with Arabs in exchange for full withdrawal from all Arab land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
Inside the Kingdom, Abdullah has become popular through implementing welfare and investment projects, introducing new political and economic reforms and taking steps to fight poverty. He also won the hearts of Saudi youth by creating new job opportunities for them in the private sector.
Abdullah launched two new giant industrial cities (Jubail-2 and Yanbu-2) in the Kingdom’s eastern and western regions in recent months, paving the way for new investment projects worth trillions of riyals.
A humanitarian king, Abdullah was the first to visit poor neighborhoods in the capital city two years ago to launch a series of schemes to fight poverty in various parts of the country. He allocated SR2 billion from the budget surplus to build low-cost housing units for the poor and needy in various parts of the Kingdom.
He instructed Prince Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz Foundation, a charity named after him, to expand its housing projects all over the Kingdom for the benefit of underprivileged sections of Saudi society. The charity is constructing 2,070 houses in different parts of the Kingdom at a cost of SR385 million.
Abdullah has been a staunch supporter of women’s rights. He said Saudi women have started entering the mainstream of national life and hoped that social attitudes toward them would change for the better within a few years.
While reaffirming his resolve to find jobs for all Saudis, Abdullah said the unemployment rate in the Kingdom was exaggerated. “The papers have inflated the number of jobless Saudis to one million.
“However, after investigation, it was revealed that the number was between 200,000 and 300,000. Half of them have already found jobs, and the other half consist of a segment that is not competent and has refused the jobs we offered.”
In February this year, a Cabinet meeting chaired by Abdullah adopted a number of decisions to intensify the country’s Saudization drive and urged government agencies, universities and media organizations to support measures taken by the government to reduce dependence on foreign labor.
