“We have finalized arrangements for providing loans for residential flats,” the minister said on Saudi television, adding that it would enable citizens to build a flat within the range of SR300,000.

Speaking about the second initiative, he said the government would guarantee loans provided by private financial institutions. “A fund will be established to guarantee loans given by banks. This will encourage banks to provide more loans and reduce the cost of lending,” he explained.

Al-Assaf said the additional payments of SR15 billion announced by the king for social insurance beneficiaries would start next month. “Poor families in the Kingdom are receiving social insurance benefits worth SR20 billion annually,” he said.

He thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for announcing a series of welfare programs for the benefit of citizens in different social groups, especially the poor and needy. He estimated the total cost of the new welfare programs announced by the king at about SR110 billion.

King Abdullah ordered authorities to increase the capital of the Real Estate Development Fund (REDF) by SR40 billion. “This will enable the fund to extend 133,000 soft loans to citizens annually,” he pointed out. Since its inception, the REDF has distributed 600,000 loans. “Providing housing to citizens is one of the government’s major concerns,” he said while speaking about the royal decree to increase REDF capital.

He said the Credit Bank had given SR31 billion in soft loans to citizens for various purposes during the past years. “The king’s order to increase the bank’s capital to SR30 billion will allow the bank to give more loans in the future,” he added.

The Credit Bank was facing problem in the past to provide loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). “SMEs are an important economic sector and in the past it had created 20,000 new jobs,” he said and disclosed plans to expand the bank’s activities.