The genuine government management method adopted by Prince Mohammed bin Salman in presiding over the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA) is an example for applying the private sector's standards in managing the governmental sector. The private sector in advanced countries is managed in an efficient and productive way whereby enhancement is an objective and an action mechanism. Moreover, CEDA undergoes constant review by developing a transparency and governance model throughout the planning and implementation phases to bolster the principle of equality and justice. For the first time at the governmental level, Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan recited the Country's budget for the first quarter of fiscal year 2017 during the press conference held Wednesday. He adopted transparency in assessment and accountability when he highlighted the Country's revenues, expenditures, amount of deficit and public debt during the first quarter compared with the same period of the previous year, . This distinguished press conference reflects the reality of the economic and developmental activity. All public and private stakeholders are transparently briefed on such activity. At the same time, this reflects the new administration of the components of economics and development. The Secretariat of CEDA for Economic Affairs, Strategic Management Office and Project Management Office are three bodies formed to oversee CEDA performance. Additionally, there are three performance management indicators as follows: Periodic Reports, Performance Indicators and Performance Dashboards. Speaking to Al-Riyadh Arabic newspaper, sister publication of Riyadh Daily, Finance Minister said that the Kingdom's financial status is better than expected. By the end of the first quarter, he added, revenues were better than forecasts while expenditures were less than expectations, thereby bringing down the deficit from the SR 50 billion forecast to about SR 26 billion. He put the figures before citizens, private sector and even the government sector so that they would be aware of our economic strength placing us with the strongest twenty economies worldwide. We hope that our sectors shall follow the example of Finance and Housing Ministries, especially the sectors with direct interface with citizens, with respect to the transparency in tackling the reality and performance levels in such sectors via periodic reports and continuous exposure to the media.
