Saudi Gazette report

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who ascended the throne in August 2005, played a remarkable role in taking the Kingdom into the elite club of world nations.



King Abdullah had been instrumental in enabling the Kingdom to record marvelous and magnificent achievements in all walks of life.



The King’s statesmanship, farsightedness and dynamic leadership qualities earned him global respect and thus becoming one of the world’s most influential leaders.



King Abdullah spearheaded an unstoppable march of development and reforms with a human face. One can see every day something new that could be recorded in his achievements.



In the glorious years of his rule, the King’s top concern was the welfare and well-being of his people. While framing the Kingdom’s development plans, he gave foremost priority to citizens and the core of all his reforms was moderation and balanced development of all regions.



In all his words and directives to officials, King Abdullah emphasized the point “Citizen is first.” He underscored the significance of investing in citizens through implementing projects aimed at developing human resources, and taking decisions aimed at fulfilling their requirements and achieving their welfare in all the vital sectors, including health, education, and housing.



Under the leadership of King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia came in the forefront of countries that gave more attention to education and healthcare through pumping billions of riyals for new universities and medical cities. Education and healthcare continued to remain the key areas of government spending, accounting for 38 percent of total spending in the current fiscal year’s budget. It also gave top priority to meet the housing requirements of citizens with allocation of SR250 billion to construct 500,000 new housing units in different parts of the Kingdom, in addition to raising the capital of Real Estate Development Fund. All these initiatives were aimed at ensuring a prosperous and glorious future for the citizens, especially the younger generation.



Women’s empowerment was one of the major highlights of the King’s political reforms. As part of a bold initiative to ensure women’s participation in the decision-making process, 30 women were nominated to the Shoura Council, in addition to granting women the right to vote and run as candidates in local elections.



King Abdullah’s another major contribution was to make available the best services and facilities for the Haj and Umrah pilgrims. The King ordered the largest ever expansion in the history of the two holy mosques. With the completion of the ongoing expansion project at a cost of more than SR100 billion, the Grand Mosque in Makkah will double its space with a capacity to accommodate two million worshippers.



Education is key to progress



Under King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia witnessed unprecedented development in the education sector. The King gave top priority to the Kingdom’s educational and technological advancement. He issued directives and took landmark decisions to concentrate on developing people of the country and creating a promising generation who possess skills and capabilities to lead the country to a bright future. These decisions included expansion of educational projects and setting up of universities in almost all major cities.



A decade ago, there were only nine universities in the Kingdom. Now, the number has shot up to 28 government universities and five private ones. The King also ordered the setting up of three new universities in North Jeddah, Bisha and Hafar Al-Batin. Apart from these, hundreds of new colleges and institutes have also been established. All these were instrumental in developing the potential and talents of the younger generation so as to enable them to play a creative role in the nation building process.



In 2005, the King launched the foreign scholarship program to send Saudi students to reputable universities around the world. More than 200,000 Saudis have so far benefited from the program.



The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Thuwal, north of Jeddah, was a major contribution by the King.



After realizing the role of human resources development in the nation’s growth and development, King Abdullah took the initiative to set aside the highest percentage of budgetary allocations for education.



In the budget for 2014, the education sector won about one-fourth of the total allocations. Out of the total expenditure, amounting to SR855 billion, the allocation for education and training was SR210 billion, a 3 percent increase compared with an all-time high of 21 percent the previous year.



In education and training, there was a renewed focus on meeting the growing requirements of the employment market for qualified hands in various sectors over the coming years.



In 2012, Saudi Arabia entered the elite club of 21 nations possessing all the essential components of e-readiness that enable a nation to offer an effective e-government and empower it further to render all types of e-services for public and private sectors. An open university has also been started and its focus is mainly on e-education and distant education.



All these emphasize the vision of a wise ruler that citizen is the first to develop and that the best investment is in human resources.



Health is wealth



King Abdullah shouldered a big task of making the Kingdom’s health sector one of the premier sectors providing top quality services and facilities to ensure healthy living of citizens. A large number of Saudi young men and women were sent abroad for higher studies in various medical specialties by taking advantage of the King’s foreign scholarship program.



The King also ordered setting up of a number of medical cities, including King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh, King Abdullah Medical City in Makkah, King Faisal Medical City in Abha, Prince Muhammad Medical City in Sakaka and King Khalid Medical City in Dammam. A large number of hospital and medical center projects were either implemented or were under various phases of implementation in various regions of the Kingdom.



Economic boom



Saudi Arabia witnessed an unprecedented economic boom and robust growth under King Abdullah. Within a short span, the King led the nation to become one of the major global economic powers with a membership in G20 and other blocs.



According to the report of the International Monetary Fund in 2013, Kingdom ranked 10 among G20 countries in terms of per capita GDP and is expected to occupy the rank of nine within the coming five years.



The King had always been keen to achieve balanced development of all regions such that the benefits of prosperity reach all sections of people. There are four economic cities, which are under various phases of implementation, and they would bring in more prosperity by attracting huge domestic and foreign investments and create jobs for hundreds of thousands of Saudis.

Public transport and Landbridge



Under King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia witnessed remarkable achievements in the transport and communications sector. The most important among them is the public transport system, especially the railway projects. The government has awarded contracts worth $22.5 billion to three consortia to carry out designing and construction works of Riyadh metro network.



The consortia consist of giant companies, which are leading manufacturers and builders of rail networks and trains in the world. The gigantic project is expected to be completed within five years.



Similar is the case with the public transport system in the major cities, including Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah. Works of the Haramain High-Speed Railway, which connects Makkah and Madinah via Jeddah, are progressing well and the ambitious project is due to complete by the end of 2015.



The Landbridge project is one of the biggest in the region with an estimated investment of $7 billion, and involves construction of 950 km of new railroad between Riyadh and Jeddah and another 115 km track between Dammam and Jubail.



Apart from this, works are under way for the North South Railway, which is a 2,400 km passenger and freight rail line that will further boost the Kingdom’s economic prosperity, in addition to passenger traffic.