Monday's Cabinet chaired by King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, approved measures recommended by the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs for land grants and infrastructure services which will see the ministry identifying planned districts requiring roads, water, drains, electricity and telecommunications services. The list of areas is to be submitted to a committee of undersecretaries from the ministries of Municipal and Rural affairs, Finance, Economy and Planning, Transport and Communications and Information Technology, which has been assigned to draw up criteria for prioritization in the provision of the services, producing five-year cost plans and an annual plan for service prioritization for the following year. The plans will then be submitted to the Ministry of Finance for approval. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, Minister of Culture and Information Abdul Aziz Khoja said the Council of Ministers reviewed Sunday's meeting of the Supreme Council for Petroleum and Mineral Affairs, which was chaired by the King and discussed the Global Competitiveness Forum currently being held in Riyadh. The King briefed the Cabinet on his talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan who recently visited the Kingdom, and the past week's meetings and contacts, which included a message from the Finnish President Tarja Halonen and the King's reception of former British prime minister Tony Blair, Special Envoy of the International Quartet Committee on the Middle East. The Council of Ministers praised the King's five-year extension of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarships Abroad Program, and the Kingdom's ranking of seventh globally - and first in the Arab world - for creativity and innovation in the Arab Thought Foundation's Second Arab Report for Cultural Development. The Cabinet also noted the report's praise for the Kingdom's education development and moves towards a knowledge-based economy, as well as the country's ranking as first in the Arab world and eighth in the world for spending on education. The Cabinet gave authorization to the Minister of Trade and Industry or a deputy to hold talks with Qatar on a draft MoU between the two governments and sign it, and further Cabinet approvals were given for the Minister of Foreign Affairs or his deputy to hold talks with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) on a headquarters draft agreement between the Kingdom and WAMY, and the Minister of Finance or his deputy to sign a draft agreement between the Kingdom and Singapore on dual taxation and income tax evasion.
