RIYADH, 20 February — The Council of Ministers yesterday reviewed the preparations made by various government agencies for the upcoming Haj. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd, who chaired the meeting, urged the authorities to mobilize all their material and manpower potentials to make the annual event a success.
Interior Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Haj Committee, Prince Naif, briefed the Cabinet on the efforts made by the government agencies and private establishments to complete this year's Haj in the best possible manner. More than two million pilgrims from all over the world are to take part in the Haj scheduled to begin on March 3.
About 800,000 pilgrims have already arrived in the Kingdom. According to Haj Minister Iyad Madani, there will be a 15 percent increase in the number of Haj pilgrims coming from abroad this year. In order to reduce congestion in the holy sites, the government has put restrictions on domestic pilgrims; Saudis and expatriates are allowed to perform Haj only once in five years.
Prince Miteb, minister of public works and housing, opened on Sunday a number of new Haj projects worth SR700 million established by his ministry. These include the third and last phase of a fire-proof tent project, a garbage treatment plant in Moaisem, and a firefighting network in Arafat. The prince watched a rehearsal by civil defense officers who extinguished a fire using the network.
Haj Minister Madani disclosed that the government has allocated SR50 million to establish the ministry's new headquarters in Makkah. He said the complex would accommodate the general directorate for domestic pilgrims, main ministry offices, a data center, a specialized library, a Haj museum and a conference hall.
The minister also revealed the ministry's plan to expand its Jeddah office to accommodate the headquarters of the Umrah service and its main computer center. "All companies licensed to provide Umrah service and their agencies abroad will be linked with this computer center," the minister said, adding that the ministry would launch its web site on the Internet shortly.
Addressing the Cabinet meeting, King Fahd briefed the ministers on the outcome of his talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The Cabinet approved an aviation service pact with South Africa and an economic, financial, tourism and technological agreement as well as a cultural cooperation accord with Venezuela. It authorized the foreign minister or his deputy to sign a cooperation agreement with the Czech Republic and the communications minister to hold talks with Syria on reaching a land transportation agreement.
The Cabinet appointed Dr. Abdul Wahid Al-Humaid as secretary-general of the Manpower Council, Abdul Aziz Al-Toraif, deputy minister for rural affairs, Ali Al-Ghamdi, director general of the civilian status department in the Eastern Province, and Muhammad Al-Bishr, assistant secretary-general of the National Security Council for financial and administrative affairs.
