Faisal, Emir of Makkah, is scheduled to launch Saturday the 10th Jeddah Economic Forum, held this year under the banner, “The Global Economy 2020”. Forum supervisor Abdul Aziz Bin Saqr said the four-day event provides a showcase for the Kingdom's role in the Arab and Islamic worlds and the international community, represented in its “considerable economic and political weight”, and its “focused vision and sense of responsibility towards development in the region and the world.” “This has become evident in the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' vision presented before world leaders at the G20 summit in November 2008, during which he outlined the principle features of the Kingdom's role in supporting world growth,” Bin Saqr said. He described the Saudi economy as resulting from the “domestic and external policies of maintaining economic, political, social, and security balance in the interests of the people of Saudi Arabia, and supporting stability and development in the Mideast and around the world.” The forum is holding on its sideline meetings and press conferences with businesspeople and economic specialists, and the JCCI has set a schedule for meetings between visiting delegations, businesspeople and the media at the Hilton Hotel in Jeddah. The first to meet will be the 24-strong Pakistani delegation on Feb. 14 which will discuss rice and its expected increase in rice imports to the Kingdom to reach 100 tons per year, followed by the Kazakhstan delegation in the afternoon to discuss banks, investment in technology, energy, gas and minerals, as well as agriculture, oil, petrochemicals and other areas of trade. The following day will see the German delegation expound on health care, law, banks and other areas, and a group from Luxembourg will look at Islamic investments, gas and water and sewers. The Russian delegation will on the final day be given a presentation on the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum.
