FINANCIAL
The financial institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have extended to Saudi citizens more than SR284 billion. These institutions have positively contributed to the development attained by the Kingdom in the various spheres.
The Saudi government has set up series of programs to support the citizens and to ensure their comfort. Governmental financial support for the citizens includes
grants, soft and interest-free loans. These financing institutions include the Saudi Arabian Agricultural Bank, the Credit Bank, the Real Estate Fund, the Industrial Development Fund and the General Investments Fund.
The Real Estate Fund was established in 1395 with a capital of SR 250 million. Up to the end of the fiscal year 1420-1421, the Fund extended more than SR118,399,000,000 worth loans to the citizens. These loans positively contributed to implementing projects of 541,000 housing units in the various parts of the Kingdom.
The Fund also extended SR5,180,389,895 worth loans for financing projects of 29,390 housing units, 2,857 offices and 5,159 commercial centers.
The Industrial Development Fund was established in 1394 with a capital SR500 million. Up to the fiscal year 1422-1423, the Fund had extended loans worth more than SR 42,075,000,000 for the financing of 1,818 industrial projects in the various parts of the Kingdom. The Fund has also been extending administrative, financial, technical and marketing consultations to the projects it contributes in their financing.
The Saudi Arabian Agricultural Bank constitutes one of the pillars of agricultural development in the country. The bank, established in 1382, extends its services to the citizens through more than 70 branches and offices in the various regions of the Kingdom. Up to the end of the fiscal year 1421-1422, the Bank had extended SR34 billion worth loans to the farmers. The subsidies extended by the Bank amounted to more than SR12 billion.
The Credit Bank was established in 1391. The Bank extends its services to the citizens who are of limited income. It helps young people who plan to get married, the persons who plan to repair their houses and the persons who want to work in the vocational sector. Up to the end of the fiscal year, 1420-1421, the Bank had extended about SR 6.7 billion worth loans.
The General Investments Fund was established in 1391 to boost some of the productive projects which were of commercial nature. Up to the end of the fiscal year 1420-1421, the Fund had extended SR 64 billion worth loans to the national companies and establishments.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made big strides in the educational sector.
The number of the students of the education ministry and the other authorities that work under its supervision amounted in the academic year 1423-1424 to 2,363,288. They obtained their studies at more than 106,000 classes at 13,849 schools with 189,303 teachers.
Due to the development of primary and secondary education in the country, the number of students of the schools of adult education dropped from 32,465 in 1421-1422 to 31,479 in 1422-1423. The number of the primary boys schools of the education ministry and the schools under its supervision amounted to 6,460 with 99,134 teachers in 1423-1424.
At the intermediate level, the number of the schools amounted to 3,756 with 623,075 students and 5,1091 teachers.
At the secondary stage, the number of schools increased to 2,037 in 1423-1424. They included 461,718 students and 33,258 teachers. The schools of the education ministry have been provided with 150 health units.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education has been giving attention to the Holy Quran memorization. In 1421-1422, the number of the Holy Quran memorization schools amounted to 551 with 56,073 students and 5,315 teachers.
The number the illiteracy eradication schools in 1422-1423 amounted to 1,071 with 31479 students.
The number of the schools of handicapped students amounted in 1423-1424 to 426. They included 12,278 students and 3,654 teachers.
As the Saudi officials have been giving utmost attention to the health sector, the allocations of the Health Ministry jumped from SR566 million in 1400-1401 to SR1,305 million in 1421-1422.
The number of the governmental and private hospitals in the Kingdom totaled, by the end of 1423 AH, 333 hospitals with 47,309 beds. The 193 governmental hospitals which include 28,488 beds are supported by about 1,791 primary health care centers.
The number of the physicians of the Health Ministry amounted to 15,602, while the number of the pharmacists exceeded 900. The 37,215 nurses of the Health Ministry are supported by 22,650 persons of medical auxiliary.
The number of the physicians at the governmental and private sectors amounted to 33,719, including 7,350 Saudis, while the number of the pharmacists amounted to 5,530, and the number of the nurses to 69,942.
The National Guard, the Ministries of Defense and Aviation, and Interior as well as the universities work along with the Health Ministry in extending medical services to the citizens and residents.
The number of the private hospitals is estimated at 101 with 9,456 beds. They are supported by 708 private health centers and 793 clinics, a medical complex in addition to 59 laboratories and about 3,228 private pharmacies.
The health centers and hospitals of the Health Ministry include 1,315 dental centers with 1,422 physicians.
Arrangements are underway to operate Riyadh-based King Fahd Medical City, which is considered as one of the biggest integrated health complexes in the Middle East. The medical city will include 1,395 beds.
The number of the health colleges in the Kingdom has amounted to 13; seven colleges for boys and six for girls.
The Kingdom has earned a good reputation in the field of medical care, most notably in the treatment of heart and kidney diseases. The state has set up a special center for the transference and transplantation of organs in coordination with the hospitals.
According to the reports of the Ministry of Water and Electricity, by 1444 AH, the power generating capacity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will reach about 67,000 megawatt,
and the total cost for meeting the requirements of the electricity sector in the next 25 years will amount to 340 billion.
About 29,482 persons work in the electricity sector. 78 percent of the total number are Saudis. By the end of the first quarter of 1423 AH, the electricity services were available in more than 9,249 cities, governorates and centers.
The Ministry of Water and Electricity has set up a number of training centers for training young Saudis and developing their skills.
The reports pointed out that the generating capacity of the electricity companies in the Kingdom increased 18 times compared to the situation in 1395. In the first quarter of 1423 AH, the power generating capacity amounted to 23,730 megawatts. Meanwhile, the number of subscribers to electricity services has jumped to more than 7.3 million.
In order to meet the increasing demand for electricity services, steam stations have been set up. The first steam station in the Kingdom was set up in the Eastern Region in 1400 AH. The station includes four units, and the capacity of each unit is 400 megawatts. The steam station of Rabigh, which was set up in 1406 AH, includes four units, and the generating capacity of each unit is 260 megawatts.
Arrangements are also underway to set up the ninth power generation station in Riyadh with a capacity of 1200 megawatts.
The agricultural area in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has increased several fold to reach 4.98 million hectares, according to a report of the Ministry of Agriculture. Unused agricultural land, which is not cultivated so far, amounts to more than 53 million hectares, said the Ministry's report for 1420 AH (1999-2000).
Figures and data, which are contained in the report, attributed this increase to the great achievement in the process of developments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosque, King Fahd bin Abdulaziz. The main factors in obtaining developments stemmed from encouraging the farmers as well as supporting them with incentives such as easy non-profit loans, granting free lands and buying some products at subsidized prices.
Despite the scarcity of water in the Kingdom and its large deserts as well as expectations of some experts that the Kingdom's land is unsuitable for cultivation, the Saudi leadership and people with their firm determination have successfully executed unique and model development schemes in the field of agriculture, schemes which have brought about the current huge growth and development in the agriculture sector.
Reports and data obtained by the Saudi Press Agency has confirmed the success and astonishing growth in the production of several crops in the Kingdom. One of these crops is wheat as it represented a trade mark of the development in the agricultural field. The annual wheat harvest exceeded domestic needs and the Kingdom has become a wheat-exporting country.
In the light of the current and future approach of agricultural development strategy aiming at achieving balance between water security and food security, the maintenance of sustainable agriculture with a diversified production base remains the primary goal.
The area used to produce grains and fodder at the end of 1999 was nearly 925,000 hectares. The area devoted to producing vegetables for the same year totaled 91,000 hectares. That land produced nearly 1,900,000 tons of vegetables - notably tomatoes, potatoes, melons and cucumber.
Production of fruit in the Kingdom has soared in 1999 to reach 1,153,000 tons in an area of 191,000 hectares. Date production has reached 712,000 tons from an area of 142,000 hectares.
Livestock has registered a great surplus in poultry production. The local production of chicken-meat reached 326,000 tons in 1999; production of eggs reached in the same period 2,465,000,000.
Other livestock showed similar developmental growth. Cattle in the Kingdom in 1999 stood at 297,000; sheep and goats reached 16.2 million; and camels reached 816,000.
Dairy production in the Kingdom reached 600,000, whereas red meat production stood at 159,000 tons and fisheries production reached 58,000 tons.
ROAD TRANSPORT
By 2001, the total length of the road networks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was more than 157,000 kilometer. A report released by the Ministry of Transport said that the projects of these road networks had been implemented at a total cost of about SR132 billion, while SR 15 billion had been spent on the maintenance of these networks from 1970 up to 2001.
Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company (SAPTCO) has a fleet of more than 3,095 buses of different types and sizes.
The Ministry of Transport has recently implemented the project of the hanging bridge at Wadi Al-Laben in Riyadh at a total cost of SR 190 million.
Arrangements are underway to implement a number of other road projects with a length of 6713.1 kilometer.
King Fahd Causeway, which links the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain was inaugurated by the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdulaziz on Nov 25, 1987. It is considered as one of the major projects implemented by the Kingdom.
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Riyadh, Sept 21,
According to the statistics of the Commerce Ministry, in 1423 AH the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had about 3,583 productive factories with an invested capital of more than SR 247 billion. The factories, which include about 320,000 workers, produce chemical and plastic products in addition to ceramics, building materials, textile, ready-made clothes and food materials.
The Kingdom, currently exports annually SR 3,007 billion worth industrial products to more than 120 countries in the world.
The Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), which was established in 1976, constitutes one of the pillars of the industrial development in the country. Basic products, which include fertilizers, petrochemical materials and metals, are marketed in more than 90 countries. The revenues of SABIC, which has a productive capacity of more than 4,006 million metric ton per year, jumped to about SR 34 billion in 2002.
The Kingdom includes 14 industrial cities with a total area of about 92 million square meter. Eight of the industrial cities are in Makkah, Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Qassim and Hassa, and arrangements are underway to establish new industrial cities in Madinah, Assir, Hail, Tabuk, Najran and Joaf.
In addition to the aforesaid industrial cities, there are two big industrial cities in Jubail and Yanbu. They work under the supervision of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.
Realizing the importance of diversification of the sources of income, Saudi officials have given the utmost attention to the industrial sector. Industrial development will lessen dependence on oil revenues and will enable the private sector to contribute positively to the development process.
