COURTESY BY: https://www.bolnews.com/
Saudi Arabia has been able to make unparalleled achievements in less than four years, said Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman on Thursday. He also mentioned that the Kingdom would strike with an “iron first” at those who threaten its security and stability.
The crown prince said he perceives corruption as cancer and the enemy of development and prosperity. The total proceeds of the anti-corruption settlements reached SR247 billion over the past three years.
“Saudi Arabia is considered to be one of the 10 best countries in dealing with the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in the G20 states,” the Saudi Press Agency reported quoting him as saying.
Muhammad Bin Salman made these remarks while addressing and thanking the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.
The King said he’s working hard on doubling the size of the Kingdom’s economy and diversifying its sources of income other than relying on income from oil.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the largest and most important economies in the world, and we are striving hard to work to double the size and diversification of the economy. To pursue this, the government considers the non-oil GDP as the main indicator of the success of our economic plans,” he said.
Regarding the Kingdom’s campaign to eradicate corruption, the crown prince said, “Other assets worth tens of billions that have been transferred to the Ministry of Finance, and will be recorded in revenues when they are liquidated, including real estate and stocks.”
He stated that the government’s next goal is to improve the citizens’ incomes. The crown prince thanked Saudi people for doing a wonderful job because of which the Kingdom was able to achieve a lot. He also thanked the public and private sectors for their concerted efforts and hard work to achieve the goals of Vision 2030.
“We have succeeded in maintaining the salaries of citizens and bearing the high costs of healthcare due to coronavirus. We were able to double the size of the Public Investment Fund from SR560 billion to more than SR1.3 trillion. Today we reached 60 percent of citizens owning a house, exceeding the target by 8 percent.”
The Vision 2030 has set an unemployment rate of 7 percent in 2030 as one of its goals. The unemployment rate dropped successively to 11.8 percent at the beginning of 2020. This was due to the increase in the efficiency of government agencies, the investments of the Public Investment Fund and other initiatives.
The Kingdom’s efforts in eliminating terrorism and extremism was also brought to the Princes’ notice. He said extremism is no longer acceptable in Saudi Arabia. “Within one year, we were able to eliminate an ideological scheme that was made over 40 years.”
“The Kingdom condemns and rejects all practices and actions that generate hatred and violence and are committed to confronting extremist rhetoric, as it rejects any attempt to link Islam with terrorism.”
The Kingdom has worked to correct the status of about half a million expatriates in order to attract qualified workers with added value.
