Beth: The ministers responsible for the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 programs held a dialogue session on Saturday evening to mark the 5-year anniversary of Saudi Vision 2030.

At the beginning of the session, a documentary film was shown reviewing the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 plans and goals within five years, which target all economic fields, quality of life, development of the tourism sector, and others.

The dialogue session included the Minister of Finance, Muhammad Al-Jadaan, Minister of Health Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khatib, and the Adviser at the Royal Court, Muhammad Al-Tuwaijri.

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Minister of Finance

Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance, the Acting Minister of Economy and Planning, said that the value-added tax will be reconsidered upon achieving several goals, including the increase in domestic production, the expansion of the economy, and the rise and continuation of oil prices, expecting to announce this during the period mentioned by Prince Muhammad bin Salman, Crown Prince.

During the session, he stressed that raising the value-added tax to 15 percent was the best among the bad options that were on the table at the time.

Al-Jadaan, who heads the financial sector development program, the privatization program and the financial sustainability program, said that the spending efficiency program in the financial sector managed to save more than 400 billion riyals within four years, as important aspects of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 accomplishments in the fifth year of implementing the “vision” are important aspects. .

The heads of the committees of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 realization program held in Riyadh yesterday a dialogue session entitled “Vision 2030 creates future opportunities”, to discuss the “vision” journey over the past five years and the upcoming achievements, challenges and features of the next phase.

The minister explained that the debt-to-GDP ratio is reasonable, saying, “The state has multiple sources of financing, including debt, reserves and wealth in the Public Investment Fund, and we have assets that we seek to allocate, and we will remain cautious in setting budget ceilings.”

And he continued, the levels of public debt to GDP are 33 percent, which is reasonable compared to the G20 countries and similar world countries, noting the increasing interest in debt on a global level following the pandemic that imposed a new reality.

He said, “The debt levels are not worrisome at all, and the kingdom has great wealth in the Public Investment Fund and has allocable assets and comfortable reserves.”

The Minister of Finance confirmed that the privatization system will go into effect within 45 days from now, with the aim of enabling the private sector to participate more in providing the services that were provided by the government and enabling it to spend on more projects through private sector investments.

He stated that the privatization program would allow the private sector to take on many projects run by the government, stressing that the private sector’s contribution to GDP would rise from 45 percent to 51 percent by the end of 2020.

He explained that the Saudi economy enjoys confidence in front of investors around the world, referring to the demand for bonds with negative interest for holders of these bonds, which means great confidence in the Saudi economy.

He stated that the development witnessed by the debt markets in Saudi Arabia contributed significantly to the increase in the value of trades, to rise by about 600 percent during the past 12 months, referring to the government’s goal to support non-oil revenues.

Minister of Health

Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, Minister of Health, Head of the Health Sector Transformation Program, Ahmed Al-Khatib, Minister of Tourism and Head of the Quality of Life Program, and Muhammad Al-Tuwaijri, Adviser at the Royal Court and Head of the National Transformation Program, participated in the dialogue session, and was moderated by journalist Khaled Al-Sulaiman.

Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, Minister of Health, confirmed that citizens will have insurance coverage through health gatherings in the Kingdom, indicating that every citizen will also have a specialist doctor to follow up his and his family’s condition.

He pointed out that medically insured persons in the private sector can benefit from the health pool by providing medical services that are not covered by the insurance.

He explained that since the launch of the Ministry of Health’s “Mawd” application, 76 million appointments have been booked, that is, an average of 150 thousand appointments per day, in addition to “the achievements made during the past five years that have qualified us to deal with the Corona pandemic successfully as a result of harmony and work among all government sectors.” .

He added, “There are 200,000 people who register daily to take the vaccine, and 60,000 test results are sent to patients in Saudi Arabia electronically and about 30,000 prescriptions are issued daily, in addition to that there are more than 400,000 people who benefit from the 937 call center daily, as the” health “application allowed Easy access to health services remotely without the need to go to hospitals.

He stated that the development of the health sector in the past five years contributed to dealing with the Corona pandemic, indicating that the application of Sehha allowed obtaining health services remotely without the need to go to hospitals.

Minister of Tourism

For his part, Ahmed Al-Khatib, Minister of Tourism and Head of the Quality of Life Program, confirmed, within the Saudi Vision 2030, that “the vision” aimed to “improve the lifestyle in the cities of the Kingdom” by raising the attractiveness of living in cities, by focusing on sports, entertainment and tourism facilities, as well as buildings. Infrastructure, urban planning, communication services, education and health close to housing, adding, “The Crown Prince has directed us that the cities of the Kingdom be among the best cities to live in in the world.”

He stated that the program to improve the quality of life has a budget of more than 60 billion riyals, and 17 different parties are linked to it, and in the sports sector there have become many sporting events, such as the Spanish and Italian Super, Dakar Rally, Formula Eye and others, and with the challenges of the pandemic there has been a lull in activities and we are optimistic about the resumption of activities.

He expected the Kingdom to add 500 thousand new hotel rooms of various levels during the next three years.

He said that “the vision” and its programs contributed to paving the way for the establishment of 1000 small and medium companies in the entertainment sector in the Kingdom, in addition to the achievements of the launch of the tourist visa, as Saudi Arabia issued 450 thousand visas to visitors from outside the Kingdom during the three months before the pandemic.

“The license is issued in half an hour, after it used to take a whole year,” he added, noting that travel to neighboring countries after seasons and entertainment events in 2019 decreased by 30 percent.

He pointed out that the Entertainment Authority has implemented more than ten thousand activities that have created more than 100,000 jobs that did not exist previously.

He pointed out that the new sectors such as entertainment, tourism and culture are new sectors that need government support in order to stand alone in the future, and the private sector will work on it by itself, in addition to the legislation that has been largely introduced to make investment in this field feasible for them and attract an important base of investors and consumers as well.

Al-Khatib emphasized that after the announcement of the National Tourism Strategy, four bodies similar to what is available internationally emerged from it, namely the regulator and the legislator, which issued many legislations and regulations to make investment more attractive and is an observer of the sector, as well as launching the Saudi Commission for Tourism and announcing programs, regions and marketing for the Kingdom in the world. The Tourism Development Fund has also been launched, and it is possible for the private sector that provides financing for medium or large and even small businesses, and the fund has so far provided more than 60 loans worth 200 million riyals, with projects whose cost exceeds one billion riyals, which have been funded, as well as the Tourism Development Board, which It contains a number of relevant government agencies from government ministries and agencies that are closely related to tourism.

He pointed out that within one year more than 100 companies have been established in the tourism sector, which in turn, as a private sector, will in the future arrange tourism events and tourism programs and will be empowered and supported to be our partner in the steps we are working on, through the system that will take place between the public sector and the sector. Also special.

He pointed out that during the first quarter of this year, more than 20 thousand Saudi men and women were trained in the sector, where seasonal jobs were provided, and more than 100,000 jobs were announced in the tourism sector, so far more than 15,000 young men and women have filled these jobs.

He stressed that the movement that Al-Ula is witnessing, as a way, has contributed to the decrease in the unemployment rate there to zero percent, and this role is what tourism does when it is active in any region it does.

Head of the National Transformation Program

For his part, Mohamed Al-Tuwaijri, advisor at the Royal Court and head of the National Transformation Program, said that the e-government jumped 35 percent in the last five years and became 81 percent of services provided electronically, as this helped in the face of the pandemic, pointing out that ten ministries harmonize daily in National Transformation Program.

He affirmed that the number of traffic deaths in the Kingdom decreased by 51 percent due to the development of the traffic system, adding, “82 percent of the forensic services have become automated. 25 million rides have been provided annually.”

He noted that the leadership directives to maintain all the goals of the program, regardless of the challenges, governance and decision-making mechanism are among the best that have been achieved in the “Vision 2030”.

Al-Tuwaijri explained that the percentage of women’s participation in the labor market rose after the “vision” to 33 percent, which is a high percentage compared to the time dimension of this development.

He promised that raising the technical progress of services increased the level of transparency and contributed to the consolidation of efforts to completely eradicate corruption, and “we no longer see the previous bureaucracy in providing services.”

He pointed out that the speed of the Internet has doubled 12 times, with the spread of the fifth generation networks within the Kingdom.

He talked about the leadership capabilities and distinguished work team provided to the Kingdom’s vision, which was reflected in the achievement of performance, offering several examples, including the flexibility of the “vision” in achieving its goals and dealing with global economic developments and the pandemic, especially when revenues decreased due to Corona. Reconsider the order of priorities.

He pointed out that the first goal for the leadership of the Kingdom and for the vision remains the citizen, and therefore contracts with the government focus on employing the best investment and ensuring the provision of high-quality services.

He said that governance and the decision-making system are among the best outcomes of “Vision 2030”, so that the Kingdom has specific programs, targets and a sustainable way of working that will enable it to continue building achievements.

Excerpts

Minister of Finance:

- The spending efficiency program in the financial sector managed to save more than 400 billion riyals within 4 years.

The Privatization System was issued in late 2020 and will take effect within 45 days.

Minister of Health:

Every citizen will have a specialist doctor to follow up on his and his family’s condition and check on them even if there are no health problems.

Every citizen will have a specialist doctor to follow up on his and his family’s condition and check on them even if there are no health problems.

Chairman of the National Transformation Program Committee:

81% of government services in Saudi Arabia are provided digitally.

Minister of Tourism:

- 100 tourism companies were established in less than a year.

The supply in the accommodation sector will increase over the next 5 years, by more than 500,000 hotel rooms.

Mohammed Al-Tuwaijri:

The number of traffic deaths decreased by 51% in Saudi Arabia.