JEDDAH, 11 March 2003 — The Council of Ministers yesterday set up a higher authority for the food and medicine sectors. The supervisory body will ensure the safe use of food, medicine, medical devices, chemicals, cosmetics and insecticides as well as electronic products.
Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency after the Cabinet meeting, Information Minister Dr. Fouad Al-Farsy said Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, will chair the new authority. Interior Minister Prince Naif is the deputy chairman.
The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd, urged the international community to take measures to stop Israel’s destruction of Palestinian infrastructure and farms and its assassination of Palestinian leaders.
“The Palestinian people are in dire need of effective Arab, Islamic and international support at this time when the world is preoccupied with other crises,” King Fahd said, adding that Israel was exploiting the present situation to carry out its destruction and assassination agenda.
On the Iraqi-US standoff, King Fahd said Riyadh was closely following up the discussions at the UN Security Council and the international contacts to avert a war and resolve the crisis peacefully. It also urged that the policy of removing weapons of mass destruction must be applied on all countries in the region, without exception.
The king said he hoped that the new Hijrah year, 1424, would usher in an era of peace and prosperity in the Islamic world. “Islam is an international, moderate and peaceful religion, which rejects all forms of terrorism and violence,” the king added.
Referring to the new authority, Al-Farsy said it will supervise the rules and regulations related to licensing food and medical factories. The authority will carry out its mission in two phases. In the first five-year phase it will have assessment and supervision roles. In the second phase it will carry out executive measures.
The authority’s 13-member board of directors includes the ministers of health, commerce, municipality and rural affairs, finance, water and industry.
The role of the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization has been restricted to implementing its limited missions. All executive measures related to food and medicine will be passed to the new authority.
The Cabinet decided to implement the unified GCC law for civilian legal procedures, endorsed by the GCC summit in Muscat. However, the Cabinet said it will be enforced as a guiding law for four years.
