The late Crown Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz

:: The Cabinet on Monday appreciated the leading role and achievements made by the late Crown Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz toward his religion and nation.

The Cabinet also praised the awarding of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif with an honorary doctorate in combating terrorism from King Abdulaziz University.

The Cabinet, chaired by King Salman, was briefed on a number of reports and, in this context, touched on services provided by different government agencies to Umrah performers and visitors of the Two Holy Mosques as well as their preparations for the coming holy month of Ramadan.

The Cabinet welcomed the 17th forum of Haj and Umrah research in Madinah.

The Cabinet hailed recommendations of the “world conference on the rights of the Prophet’s companions and his wives,” which was organized by the Islamic University in Madinah. Recommendations included establishing an international prize in the name of King Salman to be given to distinguished studies on the virtues and ethics of the Prophet’s companions and wives.

The Cabinet also stressed that the issuance of a quarterly report of the current fiscal year 2017 on the state budget comes in the framework of the government’s commitment to transparency and financial disclosure at a time when work is underway to apply initiatives of the National Transformation Program (NTP) and the Saudi Vision 2030.

It lauded the results of the report, which reflected growth in revenues, improvement in spending and drop in the deficit with progress toward a balanced budget in the framework of the Kingdom’s efforts to build a stronger and diversified economy that is less vulnerable to volatile global markets, especially in the oil sector.

At the regional level, the Cabinet stressed the hosting by Saudi Arabia of a preliminary meeting on Yemen’s recovery and reconstruction, to be organized by the Ministry of Finance.

The Cabinet also condemned the terrorist incident targeting workers of a company that was implementing a development project in Al-Masoura district, Qatif province. It said the security authorities will carry out their missions at the site of the project and will not be hampered by terror acts.

The Cabinet also approved the discussion and authorization to sign draft agreements with the US.

It also approved the organization of the Armed Forces Officers’ Club Funds.

The Cabinet approved the reformation of the board of directors of the Social Development Bank (SDB) to be headed by the minister of labor and social development and members representing the ministries of commerce and investment, Technical and Vocational Training Corp. (TVTC), Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and four experts.