to emphasize that the status of small and medium enterprises in the kingdom still needs a lot of care and an appropriate environment to perform their required roles in the economy, especially in the field of saudization of jobs. this important symposium may, hopefully, discuss this topic from its different aspects and provide the necessary recommendations to assist competent authorities in making appropriate decisions for this important sector. thank you all for listening and wish you success.

muhammad al - jasser : small and medium enterprises opening speech by his excellency dr muhammad al - jasser, governor of the saudi arabian monetary agency ( sama ), at the symposium on “ small and medium enterprises ”, organized by the institute of banking in cooperation with the international financing corporation, riyadh, 2 november 2010. * * * excellencies and honored audience, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all in the headquarters of the institute of banking. i ’ m delighted to receive an invitation to deliver the opening speech for the symposium on “ small and medium enterprises ” before this distinguished elite of participants and audience. i would like to express my thanks and appreciation to the colleagues at the institute of banking and international finance corporation ( ifc ) for organizing this symposium. i will try in this speech to shed light on some ideas related to the importance of the role of these enterprises in the national economy, challenges facing their growth, and provision of appropriate funding for them. dear audience, the national economy consists of an integrated wide range of public and private enterprises which utilize available material and human factors of production for providing continuous flows of goods and services to meet the needs of the domestic society and part of external demand. as a matter of fact, the sizes of local firms vary according to the size of labour, capital, sales … etc. it is mistakenly believed that large - scale enterprises are the main impetus for economic activity. such belief has stemmed from the attention paid to these entities by different mass media. however, the true state of affairs emphasizes that small and medium enterprises ( smes ) play an important role in the economic activity in both advanced and developing countries through their massive absorption capacity to employ labour force, including those with modest and average training and scientific qualifications, apart from their role in the daily movement of goods, services and commercial activity. for instance, small and medium enterprises in the euro area account for 99. 8 percent of total business enterprises, 60 percent of value added, and 70 percent of total employment. such percentages are not confined to the euro area only, but many other countries in the world may have similar percentages as well. small and medium enterprises are considered the most efficient and capable instrument to accelerate the pace of economic and social development, especially in remote areas with less opportunity to benefit from development. apart from being the nucleus of large - scale enterprises, small and medium enterprises provide a fertile environment for training workers and developing their skills ; and help in speeding