The ministry has also approved construction of four buildings, each at the social development centers in Sharoura, Hafr Al-Batin, Bisha and Arar, said Abdul Aziz Al-Hadlaq, undersecretary for social development at the ministry.

The building projects would cost a total of SR140 million, and each project would be implemented on a total area of 15,000 square meters.

The Social Development Agency (SDA) under the ministry supervises a total of 1,247 private organizations in the financial, administrative and technical field. They included 618 charity societies, 170 cooperative societies, 370 private social development societies, 89 charity foundations and 37 government centers for social development.

Al-Hadlaq said that negotiations are under way with Yusr — the Kingdom’s electronic transaction network that ties 100 government bodies together — to launch an e-system called "Nama" for the SDA.

This unified system would link all charity societies and foundations in the Kingdom with the governmental Social Development Centers and the nongovernmental social development committees. The General Department for Social Development would be the first department under the ministry to go online, said Al-Hadlaq.