Al-Tuwaijeri has been a member of the Shoura Council since 2005 and chairman of the council's transport, communications and information technology committee.
He has also led many delegations from the council to various international conferences. He had worked as undersecretary for planning at the Ministry of Transport before joining the council.
The new ports chief has the huge responsibility of solving the many problems currently troubling the maritime sector in the Kingdom and helping it handle the increasing needs of a world that is fast recovering from the global economic crisis.
One of the major problems in the sector is the reported threat by owners of foreign ships to boycott Saudi ports and use other Gulf ports if the current crisis in unloading cargo at Dammam's King Abdul Aziz Port continues unabated.
The ship owners complain that some vessels have had to wait up to three weeks, and in some cases an entire month, to unload cargo, something they say is resulting in a hike in costs.
They, along with shipping agents and businessmen, called on Minister of Transport Jabara Al-Seraisry, who is also chairman of the SPA, to resolve the crisis last month.
There were also press reports about a drop in the unloading of packaged goods at the Dammam port. There are problems resulting from the inefficiency of contractors and lack of workers at the ports.
Long queues of trucks are seen at the ports because of the delay in the delivery of containers to warehouses. "Some trucks had to wait from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. to clear their empty containers while others had to remain in queues for a second day as counters close at 5 p.m.," Waleed Al-Ghaithar, chairman of the Customs Clearance Committee at Asharqia Chamber, said recently.
