The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirmed that it will always work in partnership with the United Nations and the international community to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 for a beautiful present and a bright future for future generations, in which all enjoy equal opportunities, while ensuring that no one is left behind. This came in the Kingdom's speech today at the meeting of the Commission for Social Development of the Economic and Social Council at the 58th session of the United Nations in New York delivered by the third Secretary Muhammad bin Issam Khashan, a member of the Kingdom's permanent delegation to the United Nations. Muhammad Khashan clarified, at the beginning of the speech, that the Kingdom's delegation supports the statement made by the delegation of Guyana on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, expressing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's deep solidarity with the government and people of China in its struggle against the Corona virus, and its full confidence in the efforts of the Chinese government to contain this bitter humanitarian crisis. He stated that within the framework of strengthening the social protection of the anti-displacement policy, the Ministry of Housing was able to raise the rate of Saudi families' ownership of housing to 62% of the total housing until mid-2019 through the Maskani program that began in 2017 to provide housing units distributed in various regions of the Kingdom that has reached its total value of infrastructure development, 14 billion riyals, of which 4 billion are for the delivery and construction of power stations, and more than 3 billion, the value of 7 new infrastructure projects in the electricity sector. He stated that the program aims to provide housing solutions in various regions of the Kingdom that enable Saudi families to own and benefit from appropriate homes according to their needs and material capabilities and improve conditions for current and future generations by providing supportive and appropriate financing solutions in parallel with increasing the supply of housing units at reasonable prices in a record period, indicating that the Ministry of Housing aims to increase the ownership percentage by at least 70% by 2030. The member of the Kingdom's delegation to the United Nations said, "We in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are aware of the importance of primary health care in implementing the new care model and being an essential pillar for achieving universal health coverage, in line with the Astana agreement at the World Conference on Primary Health Care on October 25, 2018." He added that the Kingdom has taken accelerated steps in this field by developing the infrastructure of primary health care centers, increasing specialized clinics in them including psychiatric clinics, increasing training programs for family and nursing doctors, and activating the community role of these centers, as well as providing primary mobile health care clinics to serve remote areas. He referred to developing e-health solutions to facilitate beneficiaries' access to primary health care services through appointment reservation services (more than 80 million appointments were scheduled through this service) as well as the service to obtain medical advice from accredited doctors. Khashan emphasized that with regard to issues and policies for youth, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has given their issues a major priority, as it has established specialized programs and centers to support young people, such as the King Salman Center for Youth, and young leadership programs, and has also been keen to involve them in the decision-making process, as it has appointed a large number among them are in high positions in the state, believing that it is ambitious youth ideas that will lead the development process. He drew attention to the fact that he was aware of the Kingdom that the real investment in the citizen would be to upgrade his capabilities. The Kingdom was keen on good investment in the education sector, as it provided free education for all levels within the Kingdom, including higher education, indicating that the Kingdom has made more than a decade of time to provide opportunities for external scholarship, benefited from more than a quarter of a million students who have been dispatched to more than 30 countries, making the Kingdom has a generation able to address the world in all its languages, and an active partner in development.
