The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening the stability of the oil market and said it will work on it individually and in cooperation and coordination with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council and other OPEC and non-OPEC countries in order to provide sufficient supplies of petroleum resources while working to stabilize oil markets and restore oil prices to fair levels for producers, consumers and the oil industry. This came in the Kingdom's speech delivered by Minister of Finance, the Governor of Saudi Arabia in the International Monetary Fund, Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf yesterday in front of the Monetary and Financial Committee of the International Monetary Fund in its 24th meeting in Washington. In his speech during the meeting, Dr. Al-Assaf, the Head of the Saudi delegation, dealt with the economic situation in the Kingdom, the conditions of the global economy and some of the topics relating to the International Monetary Fund. He highlighted the continued strong performance of the Saudi economy as reflected in its high growth and moderate inflation. Dr. Al-Assaf said the medium-term economic prospects are positive with expected strong growth in non-oil gross domestic product. In terms of public finances, the Minister explained that the budget for 2012 continued to focus on supporting economic development in order to achieve strong and sustainable growth as well as to create jobs while continuing to give priority to infrastructure projects, education, health, training, and social services. On ??the banking sector, the Minister reiterated the strength and integrity of the sector and said that work is underway to apply the requirements of the Basel 3 as approved by the Basel Committee. With regard to supporting small and medium businesses, Dr. Al-Assaf said the Kingdom has taken several measures to support these establishments including the encouragement of national banks to take an active role in providing banking services to the sector of small and medium-sized establishments and urging them to establish departments concerned with the affairs of these establishments which are one of the important pillars of supporting employment and economic growth. On the other hand, Dr. Al-Assaf urged officials at the IMF to have a fair and balanced diversification of the Fund's staff to include Saudis and Arabs in the staff of this institution. He also stressed the importance of the Fund and other international financial institutions' support for the Arab countries which are passing through a phase of transition and development. Dr. Al-Assaf also urged other donor countries to follow the example of Arab donor countries and help these countries. The delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to this meeting includes the Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency Dr. Fahd bin Abdullah Al-Mubarak and Vice President and Managing Director of the Saudi Fund for Development Engineer Yousef bin Ibrahim Al-Bassam.
