It is hoped that this will lead, with Allah’s grace and guidance, to the preparation of the coming generations armed with science and knowledge that will complement the development process witnessed by our beloved country. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, The Council of Ministers approved on 28th, Sha’aban, 1431H (9th, August, 2010) the Ninth Development Plan of the Kingdom, which covers the period from 1431/1432H to 1435/1436H (2010–2014). You, may Allah bless you, instructed all organs of the State to be very keen on the implementation of their programs and projects and achieving their goals within their set time limit, giving a high priority to those which have direct impact on raising the standard of living of citizens and improving their life quality, especially in light of what have been allocated as an ambitious development expenditure which amounted to Rls 1,444 billion, 67 percent more than the allocations of the Eighth Development Plan. This plan is complementary to the achievements of previous development plans that led to a quantum leap in living standards of citizens and laid solid foundations for the Saudi economy to assume an important position in the global economy. The plan focuses on five main points, namely, continued efforts to improve the standard of living and life quality of citizens, the development and employment of the national manpower, structural development of the Saudi economy, balanced development of the Kingdom’s regions and enhancing the competitiveness of the national economy and Saudi products in domestic and overseas markets.

G20 has set a comprehensive work program to enhance the global financial system, including the establishment of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in April 2009, attaining significant progress in the regulatory area and capital adequacy standards, liquidity risk management, compensation rules for senior executives in the financial sector, and transparency in registering hedge funds and rating agencies. Hopefully, the application of these standards would enhance significantly the financial positions of global institutions in the coming years. With this background, the Saudi economy has not been affected considerably by the global financial crisis due to conservative and prudent oversight and control policies followed since a long time. For instance, attention is paid to capital adequacy ratios and loan provisions for countercyclicalities. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Under Your ongoing patronage and follow-up, the Supreme Economic Counsel continued achieving many developmental steps aiming at reconstructing and organizing the economy and updating laws and legislation in order to promote the level of the economy’s efficiency and competitiveness, support the optimum utilization of production factors, and provide sophisticated regulatory and administrative frameworks and an attractive environment to domestic and foreign investments. As a result of these efforts, the economic performance has improved greatly over the recent years. This has been highlighted by the growth of the private sector’s real GDP by an annual average of 5.1 percent during the last five years and the increase in non-oil exports by an average of 14.6 percent during the same period.