An ambitious new program that will require all the country's economic cities to provide world class government services to residents and investors within 60 minutes, 24 hours a day and seven days a week was launched Saturday night in Riyadh at the 4th Global Competitiveness Forum 2010. Amr Bin Abdullah Al-Dabbagh, Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) announced the program under the name “60x24x7”. He said this program would replace the “10x10” program by the end of 2010. The program will be implemented at the economic cities and aims to make these cities globally competitive. The forum is being organized by the SAGIA under the patronage of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. It included the participation of senior government officials, Saudi businessmen and 100 leading world personalities in business, economics, and politics. These people are expected to discuss in four days the most prominent issues and challenges facing the global economy. Al-Dabbagh said the competitiveness forum has become an international event where different ideas and visions on the concept of competitiveness are crystallized. Improving the competitiveness of the government and private sector is imperative for economic growth and helps increasing the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which would increase the per capita income and create job opportunities for citizens He said the most competitive countries of the world are those that achieve high rates of growth, development and prosperity for their people. Al-Dabbagh said SAGIA made it a point to study the successful experiments and experiences in attracting investments. It was clear to SAGIA that there was a close link between the degree of competitiveness of any country and its capability to attract investments. He said Singapore has been able to become a distinctive economic power and a center for attracting investments despite not possessing natural resources. This has happened because of its high competitiveness and its occupying a leading position in numerous international competitiveness reports for several years consecutively. Al-Dabbagh said boosting competitiveness of any country requires building an integrated system, including the legal and organizational environment and the administrative procedures that govern the work of the government and private sectors. Al-Dabbagh said the Kingdom had announced four years ago a short term goal to upgrade competitiveness of the investment environment through the 10x10 program that focuses on making the Kingdom among the ten best countries in the world in terms of the competitiveness of the investment environment by the end of 2010. He said there was a close relationship between the degree of competitiveness and the investment environment in different countries as well as the flow of capital to them. He said the Kingdom was top among the Middle East countries and the fourth in the world with regard to the actual flow of direct foreign investments exceeding $38 billion, according to a UNCTAD report. Al-Dabbagh said actual foreign and joint investments have contributed during the past five years in creating 335,000 jobs, 29 percent of which are occupied by Saudis, that is, more than double the Saudization percentage in the private sector companies of 13 percent.
