19/05/2010
King Abdullah supporting industrial development with 10 billion riyals
Minister of Finance: Low oil prices won't stymie development
Saudi Arabia: Euromoney 2010 exposes the reality of global financial markets
Side of the opening session of the "Euromoney" Saudi Arabia Conference, launched by yesterday in Riyadh
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Custodian of Two Holy Mosques approved to increase the capital of Saudi Industrial Development Fund to 30 billion riyals, an increase of ten billion riyals on support to the sector manufacturers.
Speakers from 16 countries are participating in the Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference, which was inaugurated by Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf in Riyadh yesterday.
“Euromoney Saudi Arabia 2010 takes place at a crucial time,” conference director Richard Banks told a press conference at Riyadh’s Faisaliah Hotel on Monday.
Saudi Arabia's finance minister, Ibrahim Al- Assaf has said the country is not worried about oil prices, which have fallen 17% this month, Bloomberg has reported. "I'm not worried right now and we will push through with the development of projects that we committed to," Al-Assaf said at a Euromoney conference in Riyadh.
Al-Assaf told over 1,200 delegates,businessmen and financial executives at the 5th Euromoney conference here.
Oil prices bounced back from seven-month lows on Tuesday as the euro strengthened against the dollar. Network's main contract light sweet crude for delivery in June, rallied $1.20 to $71.28 a barrel.
Al-Assaf disclosed that the capital of Saudi Industrial Development Fund would be increased from SR20 billion to SR30 billion "Two days ago Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz approved the plan to beef up the fund by giving SR 10 billion.
The minister said the global economy faced risks, such as weakness in the public finances and high public debt ratio in a number of countries, especially the advanced countries.
He said there were signs of a global economic recovery following the worst global crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Reacting to the minister's remarks, John Sfakinakis, Chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi, said:" Saudi Arabia has taken important steps since the mid 1980s to put in place the right regulatory framework and high bank capitalization and supervision so that the global financial system can draw important lessons. Saudi Arabia is among the healthiest in the G20.
Conference manager Richard Banks said that, with the recovery of the global economy, it is anticipated that demand on energy serviceswill increase once again over the forthcoming period, especially from Asian nations. Data management resources revealed that daily fuel consumption will reach 85.2 million barrels a day over the current year.
Part of the Conference attendance
Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency Gov. Muhammad Al-Jasser said at the conference that Saudu banks would resume "normal business" this year after difficult conditions following the global downturn which forced local banks to increase provisions in 2009.
He said that Saudi Arabia had applied both micro and macro prudential measures over many years, and by virtue of its conservation, the financial and banking system had been spared the worst effects of the resent market turmoil.
