Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman; deputy prime minister and minister of defense, has extolled the speech of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman while opening the work of the eighth session of the Saudi Shoura Council, confirming the kingdom managed to provide huge achievements in a short time.
In the cultural sector, the Crown Prince pointed out that "Engaging in the cultural fields was among the things considered to be prohibited. Today, the Ministry of Culture established 11 commissions that are working hard to develop all cultural sectors, which had a very significant impact on creating jobs, developing the economy, improving the quality of life and making our country more capable of attracting international talent and tourists.
HRH the Crown Prince added that "the space sector has a direct impact on the communications and technology as well as on many sectors such as environment, transportation and others. It will be a main supporter of many sectors in the near future.
Therefore, I was keen to submit a proposal to establish a space commission and suggest a board of directors to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in 2018.
"Now, we are working through the Economic and Development Affairs Council and relevant authorities to finalize the Kingdom's space strategy for the upcoming ten years, and to delegate the space commission to implement it. Its details will be announced later.
HRH the Crown Prince added that improvement of the work environment and development of the services are a major enabler. For example, the total requirements for obtaining investment licenses have been reduced by 50%. The commercial registrations and municipality licenses are immediately and electronically issued. The clearance of containers, which used to take two weeks, is now implemented within 24 hours .
More than 279 services on the "Absher" platform were launched to help 18 million beneficiaries, in addition to the "Najiz" platform which has contributed to receiving tens of thousands of electronic justice and notary services, which are be finalized within minutes.
HRH the Crown Prince highlighted the rights reforms by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , pointing out that "in the past, Saudi women could not travel without a permit, could not attend sports and cultural events, couldn't drive a car, or practice a lot of work and could not solve their issues without a guardian. The Saudi woman has suffered from this situation for decades. Today, the Saudi woman enjoys an unprecedented phase of empowerment. We worked to empower the Saudi woman in the field of labor and personal status. Today, the Saudi woman is effectively a partner with the Saudi man in the development of our nation without discrimination. I am not just talking about the woman driving.
"I am talking about providing her with an opportunity to lead the development of her country in a comprehensive sense. For example, the rate of women's participation in the labor market has doubled from 17% to 31%."
With regard to the rights of expatriates, we have taken numerous measures to restructure the contractual relationship in a manner that preserves their rights and contributes to raising the degree of professionalism in the labor market.
We have worked to correct the conditions of nearly half a million expatriates in the Kingdom, to attract qualified workers with added value. The initiative to improve the contractual relationship was launched in order to give the expatriate laborer more freedom of career mobility. This initiative is expected to raise laborer's productivity and increase competitiveness in the Saudi economy.
His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman concluded that "these achievements would not have been possible without the faith and work of the Saudi citizen, who today is pioneering initiatives and accomplishing work.
"I have assigned the Minister of Media and the relevant ministers to hold a regular press conference to discuss developments in the government's work, activate communication channels and respond to inquiries.
Finally, I would like to renew my thanks to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for launching opportunities and supporting the work and achievements. I thank the Saudi people for their great efforts through which we have achieved a lot. I thank the public and private sectors for their concerted and hard work to achieve the objectives of the Kingdom Vision 2030."
