that of april 2010. 8. conclusion in conclusion, a supportive macro and regulatory environment is critical to attracting domestic and global sources of capital. saudi arabia has been going about this process for many years, backed up by a prudent monetary and fiscal track record. we welcome longterm capital inflows in various sectors of the economy to gain mutual benefits from the economic potential of saudi arabia. to promote this, the government has adopted an “ open door ” policy towards foreign capital which has provided excellent returns to fdi investors. saudi arabia has opened up the financial sector to foreign financial institutions by granting licenses to foreign commercial & investment banks as well as asset management & insurance companies to optimize the level of competence and coverage in different financial disciplines. in terms of regulation of financial institutions, we will continue with the prudent policy which has served us well in the past. as for the g20 agenda, the challenge is to transform its broad vision into detailed rules that prevent regulatory arbitrage of which banks took advantage of in the run up to the crisis. in closing, i am reminded of an old saying : “ money is a good servant but a bad master. ” in the last crisis, excesses in the financial system came close to driving the world economy into the abyss and a repeat of the depression of the 1930s ; and it is my belief that nobody wants to see that happen again. i wish you a productive and successful conference. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

hamad al - sayari : challenges posed to investment in saudi banks speech by his excellency hamad al - sayari, governor of the saudi arabian monetary agency, to the symposium on challenges posed to investment and saudi banks, riyadh, 2 december 2006. * * * dear audience, at the beginning, i would like to welcome all honorable attendance. it gives me a great pleasure today to address you at the outset of the deliberations of this symposium on " challenges posed to investment and saudi banks in an environment of global economic openness " which is convened at a time the kingdom is witnessing a period of economic growth accompanied with and enhanced by steps of economic reforms in the fields of streamlining of regulations, restructuring of the national economy, and approval of a number of mega development projects as well as the accession to the world trade organization which is an important step towards enhancing integration into the world economy, coping with economic developments, and attraction of foreign investments apart from accession to global markets which will be reflected on the competitive capacity of the national economy. dear audience, the current symposium is being held in a promising economic environment in this country. the kingdom has recorded outstanding economic results. the real gross domestic product rose by 6. 5 percent in 2005. this growth rate was reflected on almost all sectors of the economy which is characterized by strong investment. international rating agencies recorded their appreciation and certified the efficiency and strength of the national economy. eventually, they raised the credit rating of the kingdom to advanced grades. this environment promoted the interest of foreign investors to participate in and benefit from the various investment opportunities available in the saudi economy. the saudi banking system has played a vital role in the enhancement of the national economy. thanks to its use of the latest technologies and various banking products, the banking system has witnessed good development under a supervisory system which is very keen to meet domestic requirements and legislation and to comply with international standards, including basel capital adequacy standard. the banks operating in the kingdom are very serious in the application of this standard. as a result, the kingdom's banking system has become one of the advanced systems, not only at the regional level but also at the international one. dear audience, basel ii standards are the most important supervisory initiatives of this decade, and they will have a considerable impact on changing the conduct of risk management at all banks regardless of their size and location. the standards aim at achieving a number of objectives, including ensuring the capital adequacy of