Saudi Arabia commemorates 83 years of achievements

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will celebrate its 83rd national day on Monday, an occasion to bring to the fore a lot of achievements made by the country since the unification by late King Abdulaziz Al Saud on September 23, 1932. The march of progress and economic development gained momentum through the coronation of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in 2005. The growth-oriented economic policies, adopted by King Abdullah, drew the praise from international observers and helped accelerate the development and implementation of mega projects. The development projects featured a balance between commitment to the noble values of the Islamic faith, on one hand, and the economic and social dimensions, on the other. These projects aimed to back up the urban development and meet the needs of the population while ensuring diversification of sources of national income and curbing overreliance on oil. The International Monetary Fund rated the Saudi economy as the world's seventh biggest overseas investor in 2011 with the volume of investments amounting to USD 583.7 billion. Japan came first, followed by China, Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore. The economic strength of Saudi Arabia was further recognized internationally with the country's accession to the G-20 and its participation in the Group's summits in Washington in 2008, London 2009, and Toronto 2010. Regarding the foreign policy, King Abdullah managed to assert the Kingdom's influence as a regional and international power and strengthen the country's presence at the world's decision-making forums. He used the influence of the Kingdom to spotlight the issue of the Arab and Muslim world at the agendas of international conferences. As for industrialization, the Saudi Industrial Property Authority (MODON) has recently reported that the number of operating factories at the industrial cities topped 4,718 with total investments of USD 300 billion; these employ over 250,000 workers. The ratio of the industrial contribution to the GDP grew from 5.7 percent in 2007 to 14 percent in the following year. The educational sector also saw a great boost under King Abdullah with the number of university growing from eight to 30 besides laying the foundation stones of 16 university cities at a cost of 18.5 billion riyals. The Saudi leadership also attaches importance to the development of the youth and sports sector with the numbers of sporting clubs amounting to 156 and the sports federations to 22. In addition, 21 youth centers, four 17 cultural centers and 13 sports citis have been launched. The kingdom spent over 70 billion riyals on the project to expand Al-Masjid Al-Haram (the Holy Mosque) in Makkah and Al-Masjid Al-Nabawi in Madinah in the recent years. The UN acknowledged the Saudi efforts to promote the culture of human rights and tolerance through the election of the kingdom to the membership of the UN Human Right Council for two successive terms.