JEDDAH, 29 May 2007 — The Council of Ministers yesterday approved a national plan for the development of its telecom and information technology sector with the objective of transforming the Kingdom into a knowledge-based society and a digital economy.
The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Crown Prince Sultan, also announced plans to establish powerful telecom and IT industries to “make them one of the major sources of income,” Culture and Information Minister Iyad Madani said.
The national plan for telecom and IT has long-term and short-term objectives, the minister said after the Cabinet meeting which was held at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh. The Kingdom has already begun implementing some plans and programs for the development of the sector.
Saudi Arabia’s first Knowledge Economic City (KEC) is coming up in Madinah. The KEC will have a technological and economic information center, a campus for medical research and biosciences and a center for studies in Islamic civilization. The project is expected to attract investments worth more than SR25 billion ($6.7 billion) and create nearly 25,000 new jobs.
The KEC will have a range of complementary zones: a technology and KBI zone; an advanced IT studies institute; an integrated medical services zone; a retail zone; a business district; residential zones including high rises, houses and fully serviced apartments; shopping malls; and a mosque with room for 10,000 worshippers.
Yesterday’s Cabinet meeting lambasted Israel for its continuous aggression against the Palestinian people by destroying their houses and camps and arresting members of the unity government, lawmakers and municipal councilors. “The Council of Ministers expressed its deep sorrow over the negligence of the United Nations, world powers and international organizations to shoulder their responsibility toward Israeli violations,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted a Cabinet statement as saying.
The Cabinet meeting warned that the Jewish state’s aggressive policies would only increase violence and extremism in the Middle East. It also called for the protection of Lebanon’s security, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Information Minister Madani said the Cabinet took a number of other important decisions. It approved the bases for urban development plans for the next 22 years as well as a new law for community development centers. It approved a memorandum of understanding signed with Turkey on Aug. 8, 2006 for political consultation between the two foreign ministries.
The Cabinet endorsed a GCC agreement for the transfer of prisoners, which was signed May 23, 2006. The National Society for Human Rights has urged the government to sign similar prisoner-transfer treaties with countries that have a large number of their nationals working in the Kingdom.
Bandar Al-Hajjar, president of the society, said the treaty would allow foreigners who have served six months in a Saudi jail to complete their remaining jail sentence in their countries. He emphasized the need for signing such treaties with countries such as India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Egypt, all of which have large numbers of their nationals working in Saudi Arabia.
