Saudi newspapers highlighted in their editorials today a number of issues at local, regional and international arenas. Al-Riyadh and Al-Yaum newspapers reported in their editorials that the plans and strategies of Saudi Vision 2030 work on developing work, retirement and social insurance systems, making them in line with the aspirations of vision 2030 to achieve an integrated work environment, which will reflect positively on the quality and strength of performance. In this regard, the Cabinet, in Tuesday's regular session, chaired by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Prime Minister, approved merging the Public Pension Agency into the General Organization for Social Insurance as well as a number of arrangements mentioned in the decision. This decision falls within the leadership's interest in unifying the public and private sectors' insurance protection umbrella. It also comes as an extension of the continuous restructuring processes of many government agencies that overlap with each other in many tasks and functions. Additionally, most countries of the world adopt one insurance system, the newspapers further added. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Privatization Program aims to enhance the role of the private sector in providing services and making government assets available. This will improve the quality of services provided and contribute to the reduction of costs, also encouraging economic diversity and development. Therefore, merging the two entities will provide many positive benefits for the program, the newspapers said. The newspapers concluded by noting that the decision will have a positive impact on the investment aspect. The two entities have large investment positions and the merger will reflect positively on the financial and investment position. It will lead to improving investment and returns and developing investment principles and policies. In another context, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported in its editorial that supporting the growth of the non-oil sector in Saudi Arabia is one of the priorities of Saudi Vision 2030. During the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, this sector did not achieve the expected growth, due to the economic repercussions of the pandemic, which affected the global economy. Nevertheless, the Saudi economy was not highly affected. For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic , the real GDP of the non-oil sector registered a positive growth during the first quarter of 2021 by (2.9%). The private sector expanded by 4.4%, while the government sector recorded a slight negative growth rate of 0.4%. The newspaper added that the growth achieved by the non-oil and private sector was the highest since the last quarter of 2019. This growth affirms that the development plans and economic transformations that Saudi Arabia is witnessing have been implemented according to the previously set plans, especially in terms of the completion of various projects of Vision 2030. The growth of the non-oil sector raised its contribution to the Saudi GDP to 62.8% in the first quarter of this year, and this is the highest contribution of this sector ever. The economic mobility enabled Saudi Arabia to maintain its credit position even in light of the difficult economic conditions which resulted from the global pandemic. Therefore, the World Bank, in its recent report, raised its forecast for growth in Saudi Arabia's economy to 2.4% in 2021 compared with its previous forecast of 2%, and 3.3% in 2022 compared to 2.2%, the newspaper concluded.
