Ahmed Mourad (Cairo)
The celebrations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the 92nd National Day coincide with the approaching of the eighth anniversary of the pledge of allegiance to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as King of Saudi Arabia on January 23, 2015. Over the past 8 years, he has achieved a long series of Unprecedented achievements and reforms, which made him one of the most prominent and most important historical leaders of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was sworn in as King of Saudi Arabia on January 23, 2015, succeeding the late Saudi monarch, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, and King Salman began his reign by emphasizing the His determination to continue the achievements witnessed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the last three decades, implement an integrated reform and development program, advance and upgrade the Kingdom’s internal and foreign policy, and take positive attitudes towards various local, regional and international issues.
Nearly 70 years ago, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s career in public work began, after he was appointed Acting Emir of the Riyadh region on March 16, 1954, when he was 19 years old, and in the following year he was appointed governor and governor of the Riyadh region with the rank of minister. This site operated for more than 50 years, during which it achieved a qualitative leap for the Saudi capital, and transformed it from a medium-sized city with a population of only 200,000 people to one of the fastest growing and prosperous cities in the world, and made it a regional center for travel and trade, inhabited by millions of Saudis and expatriates from all over the world. Countries of the world to work within the Kingdom.
During his tenure of the Emirate of Riyadh, King Salman paid great attention to upgrading the level of infrastructure, as he supervised the implementation of dozens and hundreds of infrastructure projects that made Riyadh a “global city” with standard specifications and standards through the establishment of a network of highways and modern ones, as well as the establishment of many facilities Vital, such as: schools, hospitals, universities, museums, sports stadiums, and entertainment cities.
Covenant State
In a new phase of King Salman bin Abdulaziz’s career in public work, he was appointed in November of 2011 as Minister of Defense, and in the following year, specifically on June 18, 2012, he was appointed Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister, and remained in his position as Minister of Defense, and worked to modernize And the development of the Saudi armed forces, which witnessed a remarkable boom in the level of training and armament, as well as the implementation of a comprehensive plan to develop the entire sectors of the Ministry of Defense.
development programs
Over the past 8 years, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has been keen to implement comprehensive and integrated development programs to advance the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia politically, economically and socially, and has achieved many achievements and reforms at various levels, which made Saudi Arabia ranked by the World Bank among the top 20 reforming countries. In the world, it ranks second among the best high-income countries and G20 countries in terms of implementing business climate improvement reforms.
In the second year of his leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specifically on April 25, 2016, King Salman launched the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 to be at the top of the development programs he adopted in order to achieve comprehensive national development, reduce the Kingdom’s dependence on oil, and diversify sources of income through a package of reforms. The economic stability is unprecedented in the history of the Kingdom, as well as achieving financial stability and other development programs that contributed to a 15% increase in non-oil revenues, a 48% reduction in the budget deficit, and a 130% increase in the number of licenses granted to foreign investments. Under the patronage of King Salman, the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 succeeded in achieving many achievements in the first five years, specifically during the period between 2015 and 2020, and with the beginning of 2021 a new phase began in the process of achieving Vision 2030. Within the framework of this new phase, it was issued on October 11, 2021 The National Investment Strategy, which is expected to contribute to the growth of the national economy and diversify its sources, thus achieving many of the goals of Vision 2030, including raising the private sector’s contribution to the GDP to 65%, and promoting foreign direct investment to reach 5.7% of GDP, Increasing the percentage of non-oil exports from 16% to 50% of the non-oil GDP, and reducing the unemployment rate to 7%. Under the umbrella of the National Investment Strategy, investments exceeding 12 trillion riyals will be pumped into the local economy until 2030.
Biggest budget
For the first time in the history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during the reign of King Salman, the trend began towards approving the general budget of the Kingdom by supporting and developing the national economy without relying primarily on oil as the only source of national income, which observers ranked among the most important achievements in the history of the Kingdom.
In 2019, King Salman announced the largest budget in the history of the Kingdom, with expenditures exceeding 1.1 trillion riyals, and revenues of 975 billion riyals. Under the leadership of King Salman, Saudi Arabia has transformed the Saudi Public Investment Fund into a sovereign fund, with assets estimated at between $2 and $2.5 trillion, to become the largest and largest sovereign fund in the world. In the petroleum sector, Saudi Aramco announced in 2021 its plans to produce two billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from the giant Al-Jafurah field by 2030, making the Kingdom the third largest natural gas producer in the world.
health and education
King Salman bin Abdulaziz paid great attention to the health and education sectors, and the two sectors witnessed an unprecedented boom during the reign of King Salman through the implementation of many projects. In the health sector, in the last eight years, many health centers were inaugurated, including 4 for cardiac catheterization, 7 for tumors, and 3 for obesity and its diseases. , and 5 to care for behavior and development disorders, in addition to launching 4 surgical robots specialized in general surgeries and urology, establishing an artificial intelligence laboratory for health technical research, and raising the level of health services provided by 600 health centers by applying the “wasfati” system. Work has also begun on the first robot-powered smart pharmacy at King Fahd Specialist Hospital in Tabuk. In the education sector, King Salman has adopted many programs and plans to develop education and bring about a real renaissance in this vital sector. In this context, his decision came to merge the Ministries of Education and Higher Education into one ministry under the name of the Ministry of Education, to allocate special programs for talented male and female students, and to open special centers To develop technical and engineering sciences in 32 schools spread over the Kingdom’s regions, launch the “Your Job and Your Scholarship” program for scholarships to the most important international universities, and provide jobs for scholarship students after their return. On November 14, 2021, the Kingdom announced the launch of the Prince Mohammed bin Salman City project, which is the first non-profit city in the world, and aims to support young Saudi talents, encourage learning and develop leadership skills among young people.
blue oil
The water desalination industry witnessed an unprecedented boom, as the Kingdom achieved record numbers in this industry that made it the largest producer of desalinated water in the world, and it is expected to become a major center for desalination technologies in the world and the Middle East, which made observers describe this industry as “new Saudi blue oil.” ».
Saudi Arabia’s production of desalinated water is currently more than 9 million cubic meters per day, and the production volume is expected to reach more than 14 million cubic meters per day in 2025.
The Saudi Saline Water Conversion Corporation operates 33 desalination plants, including 8 plants on the Arabian Gulf coast and 25 plants on the Red Sea coast. In 2018, it won the award for the largest desalination system in the world from the Guinness Book of World Records.
national projects
Over the past eight years, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud adopted an expanded work map that included a package of giant national projects, most notably the establishment of the NEOM Industrial City “Oxagon”, which constitutes the largest floating structure in the world, and the city is based on the same concepts of “The Line” communities that Launched in January 2021, it offers exceptional livability in harmony with nature, through an ideal location on the Red Sea near the Suez Canal, through which approximately 13% of world trade passes.
In addition to this is a giant project to redevelop the waterfront in the center of Jeddah’s Corniche with the aim of turning it into a vital area, the King Salman Energy City project known as “SPARK”, with investments estimated at $1.6 billion, and the Prince Muhammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport project with a capacity of more than 8 billion. Millions of passengers annually in the first phase, and 40 million passengers annually in the third phase.
In addition to the project to develop and develop the petrochemical sector in the Ras Al-Khair Industrial City, establishing some other industrial cities, such as the cities of Jubail and Yanbu, and developing a city for the automobile industry with the aim of attracting investments, increasing exports, providing job opportunities, and repairing more than 4 million square meters of road networks.
In the housing sector, many residential projects have been implemented during the past eight years, including the provision of more than 282 housing products, including housing units, land and subsidized financing to promote and develop the real estate sector in the various regions of the Kingdom, as well as regulating the rental market and preserving the rights of its parties during the process Renting by adopting the “Ejar” program. The Dar Al-Hijrah project is one of the most important residential projects launched during the reign of King Salman. It is one of the largest residential, hotel and commercial projects in Saudi Arabia. It includes 20 administrative towers, 80 residential towers, and 80 hotels providing 40,000 rooms for pilgrims, in addition to government and administrative offices. And a commercial facility that accommodates 31,000 employees, a hospital with 400 beds, and a huge “transit” station.
King Salman is keen to develop the various regions of the Kingdom and achieve comprehensive development in them. In this context, strategic offices were established in October 2021 to develop the regions of Al-Baha, Al-Jawf, and Jazan, in addition to launching a strategy to develop the Asir region by pumping 50 billion riyals into various investments.
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