By Abdulrahman Al-Misbahi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The Public Debt Management Office in the Ministry of Finance has been converted into the National Center for Debt Management. The competent higher authorities have endorsed a request from Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan in this regard, sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette.

The Riyadh-based center will enjoy financial and administrative independence, and it will be associated organizationally to the minister. The center will provide advisory services and propose executive plans for government agencies and companies in which the state owns more than 50 percent stake. The powers of the center include the collection, processing and follow-up of public debt data, negotiate debt restructuring, re-pricing or re-contracting, or services related to hedging policies or managing investor relations in public debt instruments, or credit rating.

The center will ensure that the Kingdom has sustainable access to various debt markets to issue sovereign debt instruments at fair pricing within risk management frameworks. The center will follow up the Kingdom’s credit rating, in cooperation with the relevant government agencies. It will contribute to the formulation and development of the Kingdom’s public debt policy and secure the Kingdom’s financing needs in the short, medium and long term.

The center was granted many powers to achieve its objectives, most notably: agreement with the ministry of finance to strengthen the fiscal policy of Saudi Arabia, and develop tools, methodologies and methods to pay the public debt, prepare periodic measurement and follow-up reports on public debt situations, including risk management and compliance, evaluate funding sources, analyze their impact on the public debt portfolio, and propose regulations related to public debt management.

The center’s board of directors will be chaired by the minister of finance, and twill be composed of CEO and three members.