The Global Competitiveness Forum 2016 in its 9th session kicked off its works with the discussion on "Competitive sectors that will push growth and innovation in the future". During the session, the Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah and the Minister of Health and President of the Board of Directors of Saudi Aramco, Engineer Khalid Al-Faleh delivered speeches. Before the first session of the Forum, the Minister Al-Faleh said "Despite lower oil prices, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's economy is growing by 5% and this growth has doubled several times, and will grow over the next 50 years at such percentage of growth or even more, pointing out that the Kingdom is working to diversify its sources of income and switches to innovation and creativity in the Saudi economy and make it a knowledge-based one. He added that there are challenges facing the local economy and we will turn them into opportunities, because there are great investment opportunities in the Kingdom in the sectors of information technology, health care, tourism, and financial and telecommunications services," noting that the Kingdom will switch to manufacturing and promotion of industries, and it will build more high technologies, which require well-educated and highly specialized jobs for citizens. Engineer Al-Faleh also stressed that the Kingdom is moving to reduce dependence on oil, localize jobs and focus on high-value-added industries, revealing the provision of about 500,000 jobs in the maritime services on the Kingdom's east coast which will see the light soon to provide several services to Saudi Aramco. He pointed out that with the drop in oil prices and like any other company, Aramco has worked to reduce expenses and financial costs, stressing that the company has two tracks for the analysis of the oil prices, which is to offer a range of petroleum products in one basket to be provided to the market, and the allocation of a percentage of ownership of the company for Public Subscription and it will provide additional income to the treasury of the Kingdom, giving it a greater confidence in the market, and will be a target for other companies. For his part, the Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah said 'The challenges faced by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relating to the price decline of oil, which accounts for about 80% of its revenues will push the Kingdom to meet the challenge to get out of it, drawing attention that the Kingdom has the ability to overcome that with what it has of good education and many talented young men''. Dr. Al-Rabiah confirmed that the Ministry of Commerce is working to streamline and facilitate the private sector's services and the use of technology and electronic transactions alike, and it also encourages corporate mergers and acquisitions as well as it seeks to encourage the financing of company acquisitions and mergers to make the Kingdom more competitive. The Minister warned that some companies that have not worked in the Kingdom have misconceptions about investing and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is seeking to correct these concepts and promote investment in the Kingdom and be more globally openness at the time that Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority is making significant efforts to do so. Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah pointed out that there are many of the most promising sectors in the Kingdom, including the telecommunications and information technology sector as well as the financial services and financing, which will see significant developments over the coming years, adding that there is a major development in the industry in the Kingdom and the Ministry of Commerce is optimistically planning for that.
