Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf denied alleged reports that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will impose taxes on either Saudis or foreign residents, in the Kingdom, pointing out that imposing taxation on residents was an old proposal, which will be discussed, later on, but nothing so far, has been approved, in this regard, adding that it's among initiatives proposed by the Ministry of Finance. The remarks came in the fold of replying journalists' questions here yesterday, related to the launching of the Kingdom National Transformation Program 2030, emanated from the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030, endorsed by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, following submission of it by the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, chaired by the Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Second Deputy Premier and the Minister of Defense. Al-Assaf emphasized the role of the Ministry of Finance, concerning the National Transf0ormation Program 2030, saying that its implementation would lead the national economy into a new stage of growth and stability. For his part, the Minister of Justice Dr. Waleed bin Mohammed Al-Samaani called the National Transformation Program as a main mechanism to realize the vision of the Kingdom, based on attested methodology, following pinpointing the challenges ahead of the Kingdom, in the economic and development domains. The Kingdom Vision 2030 as well as the ongoing structural revision of governmental sectors and the National Transformation Program, underscore the interest of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Crown Prince and the Deputy Crown Prince on accelerating the tempo of the governmental works, he added. On the strategic aspects related to the Ministry of Justice, the minister indicated that raising justice-related service, institutional excellence, mitigating in-court suits and disputes, improving the status of the judiciary and spotlight its role, regionally as well as internationally. In the same context, the Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Adel Bin Zaid Al-Toraifi at the beginning of his speech during the press meeting, thanked Saudi leaders for approval of the transformation program. The minister reviewed the national transformation program stressing that the announcement of the national transformation program shows the seriousness of the Council of Economic Affairs and Development. The Ministry of Culture and Information identified five main objectives within the National Transformation 2020 program, notably: the strengthening of national cultural identity, creating suitable work environment for cultural activities, care for the media industry so the focus was on creating a media city and a production city to increase the productivity of the media work and local content within the Kingdom. He stressed that the great goal of the Ministry of Culture and Information is to improve the kingdom's image at home and abroad as one of the major national priorities, in view of the charges and negative images promoted against the kingdom, especially in the past two decades, and which are void and caused by the other's lack of understanding of our culture and our true image. He noted that the Ministry of Culture and Information put (9) initiatives within the program and then formed supervisory groups to measure the performance to guarantee during the next year and the next five years that the ministry with its two divisions, culture and media, will achieve these strategic objectives successfully. For his part, Minister of Labour and Social Development Dr. Moufarrej bin Saad Al-Hagbani stressed that the national transformation program 2020 is an important phase in the drive of government's work, and carries a high methodology and contains many of the developmental initiatives. He pointed out that the important thing is the strategic interdependence that was created by the program as there is a continuous movement in the government's system. During the press meeting, Dr. Al-Hagbani explained that the most important initiatives submitted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Development for the National Transformation Program is how to transform the sector of labour and social development to be a productive sector that can contribute to the National Domestic Product (GDP) and to reduce its dependence on the government. The minister said his ministry's initiatives focused on supporting the needy groups and creating a private protection network to protect all beneficiaries, stressing that the Kingdom gives the family protection issue a lot of care. Dr. Al-Hagbani pointed out that the Kingdom hosts nearly 9 million foreigners working in the private sector, hoping to reduce the unemployment rate, and said that the ministry has put a set of programs which targets to increase participation of women in the labor market in accordance with Sharia. In turn, Minister of Transport Sulaiman bin Abdullah Al-Hamdan hailed the significance of the National Transformation 2020 Program, pointing out that the first strategic objective of the Ministry of Transport within the National Transformation 2020 Program is for the kingdom to become a global logistics center of the first class. The minister said that the kingdom has spent a lot on infrastructure and has more than 64 thousand kilometers of roads and that according to the world rankings and what is mentioned by the World Economic Forum in 2015, the kingdom ranked 34th of 140 countries.
