Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who presided over the Cabinet meeting, urged all government departments to implement all projects earmarked in the plan within their specific periods, and give top priority to those projects that are directly linked with improving the standard of living of citizens.
Under the new plan, the king said, the lion’s share of government spending (50.6 percent) is set aside for the manpower development sector that covers education and training. Social development and health care will receive 19 percent of total allocations, economic resource development 15.7 percent, transportation and telecommunications 7.7 percent while municipal services and housing 7.0 percent.
Economy and Planning Minister Khaled Al-Gosaibi said the five-year plan was prepared in line with a long-term strategic vision aimed at achieving sustained development. Apart from fighting poverty, it focuses on providing housing, employment, education, health care and other services and facilities.
“Increasing economic growth, improving the living standards and quality of life of citizens, and achieving balanced development of the Kingdom’s regions are some of the plan’s main objectives,” the minister said.
It will also help strengthen the Kingdom’s competitiveness and transform it into a knowledge-based economy. It has also given importance to youth issues, he added.
“We expect that the per capita income would grow from SR46,200 in 2009 to SR53,200 by 2014,” he said. The private sector is expected to grow by 6.6 percent annually while nonoil sectors by 6.3 percent and investment 10.4 percent.
He also pointed out that the Saudi workforce would increase from 47.9 percent in 2009 to 53.6 percent in 2014, bringing down the unemployment rate from 9.6 percent to 5.5 percent.
The government will also establish 117 hospitals including 32 specialist ones with 22,372 beds, 750 primary health care centers and 400 first-aid centers during the period. More primary, intermediate and secondary schools will be constructed to accommodate a total of 5.31 million students while the capacity of universities will be increased to 1.7 million. Twenty-five new colleges of technology, 28 higher technical institutes and 50 industrial training institutes will also be established.
Speaking about plans for the water and electricity sector, the minister said the actual capacity of desalination plants would be doubled from 1.05 billion to 2.07 billion cubic meters annually in 2014. A drinking water pipeline 15,000 km long will be established and 600,000 housing units will be given water connections. Nearly 700,000 housing units will be given sewage pipeline connections and 1.3 million subscribers will be given electricity connections.
Referring to the government’s efforts to meet housing requirements, he said the plan envisages the construction of one million housing units by the public and private sectors to meet 80 percent of the housing demand in various parts of the country. It will provide 266 million cubic meters of land for housing projects.
Al-Gosaibi said the five-year plan has taken into consideration the speedy technological and economic developments in the world. “Efforts will be made to acquire modern technology and innovative systems to increase productivity at industrial and economic sectors,” he added.
He also emphasized the Kingdom’s plan to increase investment in infrastructure projects, maintenance, human resource development, natural resource development, and environment protection projects and systems. “The Kingdom will continue its economic and administrative reforms during the plan.”
The minister highlighted the Kingdom’s development achievements in the past years, adding that it would serve as a launching pad for the ninth plan. He said the government is pinning great hopes on the private sector toward realizing the development plan by mobilizing its financial and human resources.
Commenting on the 9th Plan, John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi, said the government’s move to focus on manpower development would help achieve sustainable economic growth. “Manpower development is crucial if Saudi Arabia wants to move into a knowledge-based economy with real market needs,” he told Arab News.
Saudi Arabia needs to address the issue of disproportionate growth of general education over technical education. Closing the gaps between the labor market and the education system remains a top priority, Sfakianakis said. “Saudi Arabia has accomplished many objectives on the road to better human resources development. There has been a considerable rise in the number of higher education institutions and training research centers,” he added.
Jarmo T. Kotilaine, chief economist of NCB Capital, also welcomed the 9th Plan and its strategic goals. “This is a welcome strategic focus even if it predictably builds on the priorities that have already been laid down in recent years. The key policy priority must be to deepen and more effectively mobilize the Kingdom’s large pool of human capital which not only has the potential to become a key comparative advantage but also needs to do so if the longer-term diversification objectives are to be met.”
Kotilaine added: “Boosting the development of the nonoil sectors through human capital deepening is a precondition for increasing the long-term sustainable growth rate of the Kingdom. Of particular importance in this regard are efforts to enable people with the necessary knowledge and education to apply it to entrepreneurship, an area where considerable progress remains to be made even if promising steps have been taken in recent years. While more knowledge is important, the critical step remains the translation of this knowledge into production.”
Cabinet decisions:
King Abdullah congratulated Muslims in the Kingdom and all over the world on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan and hoped the fasting month would strengthen Muslim unity and solidarity. He instructed ministers and concerned departments to do whatever possible to serve Umrah pilgrims.
The Cabinet meeting denounced the recent Israeli aggression on Lebanon and said it was a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. It urged the international community to prevent Israel from attacking Lebanon and violating its sovereignty. The Cabinet extended its condolences to the governments and peoples of Pakistan and China on the deaths and destructions caused by floods.
The meeting commended UNESCO’s international heritage committee for registering Turaif District in Al-Diriya historical region of Riyadh as a world heritage site. The committee took the decision during a meeting in the Brazilian capital recently. “The decision reflects the Kingdom’s position as a center of civilization replete with historical and heritage sites of high value,” the Cabinet said.
Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja said the Cabinet approved changes to Article 2 of the agreement with Uruguay for cooperation in various fields. It also endorsed the memorandum of understanding with Yemen for cooperation in social insurance and another accord with Syria for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion.
