This can affect trade, office work, distribution and storage, manufacturing production, etc. However, it is important to realise that the introduction of new technology only takes place during a limited period and that it is probably only during these years that a higher growth in productivity is achieved. When the changes to the new are carried out, it is probable that productivity will develop more slowly again. This can be compared with the introduction of electricity and the spread of electrical motors in industry, or the spread of the internal combustion motor. I would thus like to warn against viewing the future through rose-tinted spectacles. It is true that productivity growth has been higher after 1994 than in the preceding 20-year period. An increase from 1.4% to 1.9% has been registered. However, the first period included three long downturns and the second a broad upswing. We cannot therefore know whether it is only cyclical differences that underlie the figures or whether technological changes have also contributed to sustainable stronger productivity growth. To sum up, I would like to point out that we now have a better relationship between growth and inflation due to inflationary expectations being pushed down. It is possible that technical developments have also produced productivity improvements that mean that growth for a period can increase more quickly than previously without inflationary pressure being created. One factor that I have not touched on to date is the effects of increased competition through internationalisation and domestic deregulation.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established by the end of the eighties of the last century and the Financial Action Task Force for the Middle East and North Africa (MENAFATF) was founded in the middle of this decade. The Kingdom is an active member in these two groups. BIS Review 54/2010  1  In 2003, the Anti-Money Laundering Law, which provided for criminalizing offenses related to money laundering was issued, followed by its Executive Regulations. The issuing of this Law and its Executive Regulations has helped government organs and their subordinate entities concerned with combating money laundering to develop necessary mechanisms and procedures to implement the Anti-Money Laundering Law and related rules and ensure that they are fully complied with. These organs have established specialized departments responsible for implementing these rules (compliance function), appointed qualified human resources (compliance officers), and allocated human and financial resources necessary to enable them to perform their functions properly. At the same time, each supervisory government authority has enacted rules and regulations derived from the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Law and its Executive Regulations and included them in its by-laws in a way commensurate with the work of those organs. Within the framework of the kingdom’s efforts to combat money laundering, I would like to highlight the following: 1. The Permanent Committee for Combating Money Laundering, which consists of representatives from seven ministries and government departments, has been established at SAMA to deal with issues related to money laundering. 2.