Commerce Minister: We Seek to Increase Role of Private Sector in Achieving Development and Investment Strategies
Housing Minister: Construction and Building Sector Still Suffering from Relying on Old Techniques
The Minister of Commerce and Investment, the Chairman of SASO's Board of Directors, Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Kasabi, emphasized the Kingdom's keenness to grant the business sector a prominent role in achieving the ambitious Vision of the generous Kingdom "2030 Vision". He indicated that the Vision aims at increasing the role of private sector in achieving the development and investment visions and strategies in all fields. He also confirmed that the Kingdom seeks to open opportunities for this significant sector to participate effectively in the development sustainability of the domestic product.
The minister's speech was delivered at the opening of "Upholding Community Partnership, Society Service and Sustainable Development for Standardization Activities" workshop, organized by SASO, in collaboration with Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO). "There is no doubt that enhancing integration and partnership between public sector and business sector is the most important step in the sustainable development journey and a basic requirement to achieve qualitative development of the national economy," he said. Also, he stressed the necessity to promote concepts and applications of community partnership in business sector, in general.
Moreover, he hoped that the workshop contributes to making a real Arab start towards solid, organized institutional work. This work will enhance the role of standardization and quality activities, unify mutual efforts to support the Arab process towards sustainable development, encourage the growth of Arab economies and strengthen their competitive capabilities in regional and international markets.
On the other hand, the Minister of Housing, Mr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Hugail, stressed the importance of the workshop, especially that it deals with, as one of its topics, the role of housing sector which has a big part of the sustainable development process. "We deeply look forward to meeting the increasing number of housing requests, considering houses a solid right for the citizens," he said. Furthermore, he pointed out that the construction and building sector is still depending on old mechanisms and techniques and needs more developing efforts which rely on modern technology. He expressed his hope that the workshop provides an opportunity to take a look at updates in the field of techniques and incentives for this sector. He praised the efforts exerted at SASO, during the last period, to support the housing sector in the Kingdom by adopting concepts of modern techniques in the field of construction and housing.
For his part, SASO's Governor, Dr. Sa'ad bin Othman Al-Kasabi, confirmed that SASO makes concentrated efforts to enhance community participation and sustainable development issues through technical regulations and standard specifications it adopts. He identified that SASO has recently found a department for "service standards" in order to consolidate the concepts of standards which boost work in the fields of sustainability and social responsibility in service sectors in the areas of transportation, health, education, post, security, safety, etc. "We currently work towards promoting the concept of social responsibility, with an appreciated interaction of our partners, through adopting concepts and applications of the International Standard Specification for Social Responsibility (ISO 26001) after adjusting it to comply with our religious and national values," he said.
During his speech, Dr. Sa'ad Al-Kasabi confirmed that this workshop is a part of SASO's keenness to support Arab efforts in the institutional work in the field of standardization and quality activities at the Arab level and to enhance the role of these activities in promoting sustainable development applications. SASO has also participated in developing the Arab Standardization and Quality Strategy for 2014-2018 and planning its projects, working with different work teams and committees. He indicated that the workshop lasts for two days and includes 6 scientific sessions with (32) work papers addressing service, education, medical supplies, telecommunication and housing fields. Representatives of 10 different countries participate with their work papers in the events of this workshop in order to enhance mechanisms and means of cooperation, exchange expertise and share visions to achieve sustainable Arab development in various sectors and services, Allah's willing.
For his part, the Director General of AIDMO, Eng. Adel Saqer Al-Saqer, valued the efforts of the Kingdom's government to support AIDMO and the joint Arab work. He also thanked his excellency the minister of commerce and investment for patronizing this workshop, and SASO for hosting these events. In addition, he stressed that these events came within the joint Arab coordination to strengthen the role of standardization activities in implementing the strategic visions of different member states of AIDMO.
Moreover, Eng. Al-Saqer identified that the objectives and topics of the workshop comply with the role and importance of standardization for the community. The workshop enhances the quality infrastructure by promoting standards development, metrology, testing, quality management, certification, inspection and accreditation. It also highlights "education and community partnership", aiming at achieving community development and growth through research and innovation to specify problems, analyze them and find suitable solutions for them. Additionally, it supports the Arab Standardization and Quality Strategy for 2014-2018. AIDMO implements this strategy in collaboration and coordination with Arab member states to increase the quality of goods and services provided to Arab citizens, facilitate bilateral trade, support exports and contribute to the comprehensive, sustainable economic development in the Arab region.
