SAGIA Gov. Abdullatif Al-Othman delivers his opening speech at the 8th Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF-2015) in Riyadh on Monday.

Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product (GDP) doubled during the reign of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, who died on Friday, from SR1.23 trillion in 2005 to about SR2.82 trillion in 2014.

Disclosing this, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) Gov. Abdullatif Al-Othman said that the growth rate of 129 percent was higher than that of the G-20, placing the Kingdom among the strongest global economies in the world.

Al-Othman was addressing the opening session of SAGIA’s 8th Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF-2015) in the capital.

The theme of the first day’s opening session was “Competitive Governments and Saudi Arabia: A Gateway to the world.”

Referring to the 90.4 percent fall in government debt from SR460 billion in 2005 to SR44 billion at the end of 2014, Al-Othman said the ratio of public debt to GDP also dipped from 37.3 percent in 2005 to 1.6 percent in 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Al-Othman attributed these achievements to the leadership support for promoting coordination between the public and private sectors. He also made a special reference to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, who as the crown prince had visited Japan, China, France, Britain and India to attract more investments in the Kingdom.

During the same period there was a five-fold surge in foreign investment in the Kingdom, from SR125 billion in 2005 to SR780 billion in 2014. At another level, government spending rose from SR346 billion in 2005 to SR1.1 trillion last year, up by 217 percent reflecting higher support for development projects. Accordingly, the work force in the country also went up.

In addition to the hike in government lending funds, and helping job seekers with the Hafiz program as well as increasing allocations to address poverty programs. Annual allocations for social security, and housing and transportation projects were huge and other development programs also went up during the same period.

According to him, there was also a four-fold rise in the total of reserved assets of the country from SR581 billion rose in 2005 to about SR2.75 trillion at the end of 2014, with an increase of 372 percent, making the country the third richest country in terms of size of the reserve assets after China and Japan, according to the latest data released by the IMF. Saudi Arabia’s reserves represent about 56 percent of the total reserves of all euro zone countries together.

According to the data issued by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), Al-Othman noted that the current account surplus from government balance of payments rose from SR337 billion in 2005 to about SR440 billion in 2014, up by 30 percent. This made the Kingdom, according to the IMF, the third largest global economy in terms of the current account surplus after China and Germany.

The SAGIA governor said the number of industrial cities in Saudi Arabia had doubled from 14 industrial cities in 2007, to 34 in 2014, representing an increase of around 135 percent. The number of factories producing and under construction has increased from 1,950 in 2007 to 5,600 in 2014, dispersed in all industrial cities, an increase of 178 percent, and investments exceeding SR450 billion.

Referring to the number of Saudis among government employees, he said that it went up from 713,000 in 2005 to 1.146 million in 2013, up 42 percent, making it the highest growth rate achieved by the government in the world for providing job opportunities to the citizens.

According to him, the social security allocation rose to SR3 billion in 2005 to about SR13 billion in 2013, a growth rate of 331 percent during the reign of King Abdullah, which benefited 781,000 persons with an increase of 102.1 percent during the period.

Saudi Arabia has maintained its independent status and membership in the Council of the International Monetary Fund. The Kingdom is the eighth largest in the world in terms of voting power in the IMF among its 185 member states.

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