Presiding over the weekly Cabinet meeting at Al-Salam Palace here, King Abdullah expressed his appreciation of the tremendous cooperation extended by Arab leaders during his tour to strengthen Arab unity and unify Arabs on major global issues.
The king said his foreign tour was instrumental in mobilizing international support to achieve progress in the Middle East peace process and restore Arab rights, especially the right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent Palestinian state.
"The Cabinet highly appreciated the efforts of King Abdullah and other Arab leaders to strengthen Arab unity to confront challenges, especially the Israeli challenge," Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja told the Saudi Press Agency.
The Cabinet commended the "historic visit" of King Abdullah and President Bashar Assad of Syria to Beirut on Friday and their meeting with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman.
The Cabinet referred to the international Islamic conference organized by the Muslim World League in Makkah on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior Prince Naif opened the conference on Saturday on behalf of the king.
Khoja said the Cabinet changed some articles of the Social Insurance Law. In accordance with the new changes, the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) would pay expenses for the embalming and transportation of bodies of GOSI members who died of work-related injuries to their respective countries. It will also pay for the transportation of a member who becomes permanently disabled to his country.
"A woman member, who is no longer subject to the provisions of the law, is entitled to receive her pension when she reaches 55 as long as she completes at least 120 months," the revised Article 38 of the law says. If a person's period of membership reached only five years when he is 60, he can request to add no more than five years to qualify for pension.
The Cabinet authorized the secretary-general of the Saudi Wildlife Authority to reach an agreement with the UAE on implementing an executive program for the preservation of Arabian leopards.
It endorsed a memorandum of understanding signed by the King Abdul Aziz Museum with the Center for Studies on Gulf and Arabian Peninsula in Kuwait.
The Cabinet conferred the power to classify engineering consultancy firms on the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. A committee shall work out a mechanism for the classification within two months. It also approved the principles of preferential trade relations between members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
