RIYADH: The fourth Riyadh Economic Forum (REF) which concluded Tuesday called for a national commission for knowledge economy, which would report directly to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the chairman of the Supreme Economic Council. The forum sponsored by the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was inaugurated by Second Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Prince Naif in Riyadh, Sunday. More than 3,000 delegates including bankers, economists, academicians and businessmen from the public and private sectors attended. The delegates felt that such a national body should be able to coordinate all activities related to research and development of the Kingdom’s economy for the next 40 years. A set of 18 recommendations were made at the concluding session held under the chairmanship of Saad Al-Moajil, chairman of the board of trustees of the REF. The resolutions will be submitted to the king at an early date. The delegates also felt that the funds allocated for research and development should be doubled to reap an effective and quicker yield. They strongly stressed the need for compulsory primary education to develop the Kingdom’s human resources.
The delegates recommended that under a program entitled “Education for All”, there should be compulsory primary education and the government should exert all its efforts to enroll children in neighborhood schools. The government should encourage adult education and introduce lifelong learning systems. To improve the quality of education at all stages, they recommended that communication and information technology be included in the school curriculum and in the teacher training methods. Al-Moajil said that the recommendations were based on a study presented to the forum by a group composed of scholars, businessmen and academics.
The forum focused on sustainable economic development concentrated on the five issues based on the study such as water and food security and sustainable development, oil and development needs, investment in human capital and knowledge-based economy, trade regulations and requirements of the Saudi development, the Saudi business readiness in the face of global competitiveness.
It was further recommended that the Ministry of Water and Electricity should build a database for available water resources and use it in various locations, sizes and properties allowing for complete transparency for data researchers.
The delegates requested the Ministry of Finance to provide funds needed to support the implementation of programs of structural transformation required in the agricultural sector to achieve a balance between water and food security and sustainable development.
The three-day event was sponsored by the RCCI with local sponsors such as Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) National Commercial Bank (NCB), Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), Saudi Aramco, Al-Rajhi Bank and Riyad Bank. Participants were from among the members of the private and public sectors as well as others.
Appreciating the progressive economic developments in the Kingdom, it was pointed out that the Kingdom succeeded throughout the period 1995 to 2008 in making notable progress in its international position on the knowledge economy map as its ranking advanced from 74 at the beginning of the period to 69 in 2007. The delegates classified the Saudi economy into two sectors namely oil and nonoil sector. The nonoil sector outperforms the oil sector in terms of its contribution to the value of the GDP (gross domestic product) at constant prices, with an estimated contribution of two-thirds while the oil sector contributes to only one-third. The private sector is the primary employer in the Kingdom and amounts to 5.8 million workers, 71 percent of the total work force in the Kingdom. Expatriate workers represent 87 percent of the total work force in the private sector, while the national work force represents 13 percent.
