, benefiting about 1, 113 smes. this is in addition to financing loans granted by saudi credit and saving bank to young people and small businesses, as well as the financial support of the centennial fund and the program of “ bab rizq jameel ” of abdul latif jameel which provides material support to the youth ’ s projects and training courses. dear brothers and sisters, today, simah project for assessment of smes emerges as an important plan in order to encourage banks to finance these enterprises in a scientific and systematic way that takes into consideration the prevention of risks related to its financing, and helps banks to diversify their portfolios, which adds a new area to the main finance areas in the kingdom. for example, the corporate finance granted by banks exceeded rls 800 billion at the end of the 2nd quarter of 2011, the individuals ’ finance was rls 217. 5 billion and the public sector ’ s finance amounted to rls 250. 5 billion at the same period. today, through this project, we endeavor to make the smes ’ finance a tributary of finance in the banking sector to achieve the development objectives that the kingdom seeks to realize for its economy. it is needless to stress the importance of the diversification of the banking sector ’ s loans to all segments of the economy and the business sector, which can decrease lending risks, enhance the efficiency of funding in the economy in general and increase banks ’ efficiency in determining the quality of these enterprises ’ assets, giving it the opportunity of obtaining finance that will contribute to the development of the private sector. bis central bankers ’ speeches i would like to emphasize that the status of the mses in the kingdom still needs a lot of care and insuring a suitable environment so that they can play their required role in the economy, especially in the field of job creation and saudization. this project may be the real start for combining efforts to help this important sector to overcome one of the most important obstacles facing its development, namely, obtaining the required finance to fulfill its financial needs. thank you all for listening, and i wish you success. bis central bankers ’ speeches

growth of 16 percent. individual proprietorship firms represented 93. 1 percent of the total of annual average growth, limited liability enterprises 4. 7 percent and holding enterprises 0. 6 percent. economic activity of these enterprises was focused in three areas : commercial activity 34. 3 percent, construction and building 32. 3 percent and manufacturing industries 14. 6 percent. small enterprises with less than 5 employees accounted for the largest share of 55. 5 percent of the total number of enterprises at the end of 1430h, while the rest, enterprises with more than 60 employees represented 3. 8 percent. these data show that most of the enterprises in the kingdom are small, in terms of the number of workers. smes ’ contribution to the kingdom ’ s gdp is very low, accounting for 33 percent, while smes constituted 64. 3 percent of japan ’ s gdp, 43. 3 percent of spain ’ s gdp, 56 percent of france ’ s gdp, 44 percent of austria ’ s gdp, 43 percent of canada ’ s gdp and 33 percent of australia ’ s gdp. smes ’ contribution to the u. s. a ’ s gdp is more than 50 percent. the insignificant contribution of smes to the kingdom ’ s gdp may be due to the oil and governmental sector which represent the major impetus of economic activity. dear brothers and sisters, smes are facing clear challenges in gaining the necessary funding for meeting their expansion needs due to various reasons including poor management, and lack of adequate guarantees and, subsequently, the difficulty of obtaining the necessary funding. in order to overcome this problem in the kingdom, the ministry of finance, in collaboration with saudi banks, established a guarantee program ( kafalah ) for financing smes. the program, with a capital of rls 200 million, is managed by saudi industrial development fund to cover a proportion of the risk of the financing entity in case of the failure of the guaranteed activity in repaying the finance or part thereof. the program also aims at encouraging banks to finance smes that have the constituents for success, but at the same time, they cannot present the necessary guarantees or accounting records to prove their eligibility for funding. the program has recorded good performance since its inception in 2006 until 1 - oct - 2010, as the number of guarantees approved by the ministry of finance during that period reached 1, 668 with a total value of rls 644 million, while loans granted by banks under the umbrella of the program amounted to rls 1. 6 billion