The Ministry of Finance said there today that it will hold a press conference, following the announcement of the state budget for the Fiscal Year 1439/1440 AH corresponding to 2018-2019, at the headquarters of the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) here, at 5:30 pm local time. The conference is set to be attended by the Finance Minister Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jada'an, Minister of Economy and Planning Mohammed bin Mazyad Al-Tuwaijri and the Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency Dr. Ahmed bin Abdul-Karim Al-Khilaifi. According to Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance for Communication and Information Ya'arub bin Abdullah Al-Thunayan, this announcement confirms the approach adopted by the Kingdom's government to enhance transparency and improve standards of financial disclosure, as a main pillar for its strategy to achieve the Fiscal Balance, Program, which falls in line with the Kingdom Vision 2030, reiterating that the Kingdom the Kingdom government will continue to contribute to promote economic growth, support the private sector and improve services to delivered to citizens, such as education, health, social development, municipal services, housing, public transport and real estate sector, all which will, extensively, be discussed on the day of the budget announcement. General budget preparation aims to raise the efficiency of government spending, help government agencies to better plan their budgets and prioritize spending on their projects and development programs, he explained, pointing out that the most important changes under this drive is the way of preparing the budget-draft, her stressed. This budget drafting approach is descending from the top to the bottom, proceeding form the requirements of growth, economic development and sustainability of the public finance, as from the top down from the requirements of growth and economic development and sustainability of public finance, as it adopted a new mechanism that strike a harmony between drafting from the bottom to the top, in terms of the requirements of the beneficiary, he indicated. Henceforth, successive workshops for all government agencies were held, during the current year, in order to put forward the new budget drafting mechanism, he stated, pointing out that the Kingdom's Government was on the right path, in regard of effective economic management, despite difficult international conditions. It had made significant progress in advancing the economic reforms of 2017, as it took a series of measures implemented to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government expenditure, stressing that the Ministry of Finance has committed to the promises launched this year, including disbursement of private sector dues, in less than 60 days, as it succeeded in disbursing more than 90% of the total dues, within 45 days, he confirmed. Al-Thunayan expected the announcement of the budget to be praised by the international community, given the pivotal role played by the Kingdom, as a member of the G20 and a key player, in global energy markets. Recalling international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), praising the Kingdom's reforms, in the framework of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, which managed to reduce the fiscal deficit by a large percentage from 12.8% of the GDP in the Fiscal Year 2016, to 8.9% of GDP in the Fiscal Year 2017, he concluded the remarks.
