JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will sponsor the first Saudi forum for productive Saudi families to be held on Oct. 24-25 at Jeddah’s Lailati Hall.
The two-day event is aimed at encouraging productive families, merging their production into the national economy and promoting their output to international levels. The event is being organized by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) in collaboration with the Makkah Governorate, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Muhammad Abdul Qadir Al-Fadl, chairman of the Saudi Council of Chambers and the JCCI, said the forum will be attended by experts and representatives of productive families.
He added that the forum will include speeches by Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Minister of Education Prince Faisal bin Abdullah Al-Saud, Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdullah Zainal Alireza, Labor Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi and Minister of Social Affairs Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen.
“This unique social gathering, which has been awaited by economic circles, will have a significant effect on society,” he said, adding that the forum is an effective partnership between the public and private sectors.
Ulfat Qabbani, a member of the JCCI’s board of directors and chairman of the Jeddah Council for Social Responsibility, said the forum would make a qualitative leap in the Kingdom’s endeavor to change from a society that consumes into one that produces. She said the forum would consider a number of themes, including capacity building through legislatures and regulations, moving from dependability to independence, and the sponsorship of productive families.
Ulfat indicated that the activities of the forum would also include a strategic workshop to support productive families, an exhibition of their products and the establishment of an Internet site to shed light on their activities.
She also said the projects being undertaken by families would play an important role in combating unemployment by qualifying youths, providing them with skills that would enable them to find work, mobilizing the potentials of the civil society for manual and professional production, and increasing and diversifying sources of individual income.
The forum’s preparatory committee comprises undersecretaries of several ministries, representatives of the private sector, experts, specialists and officials from the JCCI.
