The Minister of Economy and Planning Muhammad Al-Twaijri has affirmed reducing unemployment rates is a key challenge facing the Saudi leadership, highlighting the existing cooperation between the ministries of economy and labor.
Al-Twaijri called during the Budget 2020 Forum for considering a holistic approach to address unemployment, stressing that solving this issue is related to education and the necessity of acquiring required skills for the labor market and private sector in order to ensure growth and support foreign investments.
“Next Sunday, the Q3 2019 figures on unemployment will be announced. There will be a drop in the unemployment rate. By the end of 2019, we will see better figures and there will be a rise in the percentage of women’s participation,” Al-Twaijri said.
Every initiative or program without exception has a big role in employment. When any project is studied, whether in the transport, health or mining sector, there should be studies related to creating jobs, he said.
He drew attention to the fact that the year 2019 is a very important year, as it was during 2019 that a big database was built. It supports decision-making and policies that are the pivot for designing the 2020 Budget based on specific data and factors concerned with clear events, like creating jobs for Saudi young men and women, supporting the local content and raising spending efficiency, among other factors.
Meanwhile, the Governor of Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has disclosed that four activities in the private sector have witnessed growth. They include real estate, which represents 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at a rate exceeding last year’s figures by 4 to 6 percent.
During a session on the sidelines of the budget forum in Riyadh Tuesday, SAMA Governor Ahmed Al-Khulaifi added growth rate of real estate loans has had a positive impact on the building and construction sector.
He further said that the real estate lending sector is comparable to the consumer lending in Saudi Arabia. In this connection, real estate lending forms 19 percent of the volume of the financing portfolio.
He added: “One of the motivators of economic growth is the existence cash liquidity. When we monitor the liquidity in banks, we will see a 5 percent rise, according to the October data.”
SOURCE : SAUDIGAZETTE
