Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Bin Fadhel Al-Ibrahim has called on the world community to work together to intensify efforts in order to achieve more stability in social, environmental and economic aspects, noting that there are just nine years left to achieve the goals of the sustainable development by 2030.

He made the remarks on Thursday during the closing session of the nine-day high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF), which was held virtually this year in the wake of the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The theme of the HLFP 2021 was sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.

The minister of economy and planning, who led the Kingdom's delegation, consisting of governmental agencies, private sector and non-profit organizations, presented the country's local efforts to combat the pandemic at the forum.

On the economic aspect, the delegation shed light on Saudi Araba's initiatives to alleviate the financial and economic impacts of the pandemic while on the environmental side, the delegation highlighted the Kingdom's “Green Saudi Arabia and “Green Middle East” initiatives.

Addressing the participants of the forum, Al-Ibrahim said that Saudi Arabia's economy faced twin challenges of the pandemic and the collapse in oil prices, widening the fiscal deficit in 2020 to 11.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

He attributed the success in overcoming the challenges to the leadership’s timely decisions and initiatives as well as support measures for the private sector enterprises and protection of jobs in the public and private sectors, which contributed considerably to preserving the stability of the economy of the Kingdom, citing the recent IMF report.