King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Monday witnesses the third anniversary of his ascension to the throne. It happened on this day 1426 H when his brother King Fahd's death placed him on the throne. For three years, the Monarch has walked the extra mile to bring the world together. During the three years as monarch King Abdullah excelled as a statesman and a leader with a vision. He was awarded King Faisal International Prize for the service toIslam this year. The prize reiterates King Abdullah's great role in the service to Islam and Muslims. In the Third Extraordinary Summit in Makkah in 2005, King Abdullah had spoken on the need to awaken the Islamic nation and called for integration of Muslims to reach a common understanding in inter-relations and with other countries. Shortly after the Summit in 2006, King Abdullah called the Iraqi leaders, both Sunnis and Shiites, to meet at Al-Safa Palace in Makkah to sign Makkah Accord whereby the two Iraqi parties stopped violence and sectarian clashes. In a similar step, King Abdullah hosted Palestinian delegations representing the two rival parties, Fatah and Hamas, in 2007 few meters away from the Holy Ka'aba for a dialogue in a bid to end the ongoing infighting. In 2007, Sudan and Chad signed an agreement for developing bilateral relations after mediation from King Abdullah. The same year, Somalian reconciliation conference was held in Jeddah. The remarkable event in 2008 was the Inter-faith Dialogue Conference which was patronized by King Abdullah this month. One of the recommendations of the conference was to establish King Abdullah International Award for Civilized Dialogue. In another aspect of concern for Islam and Muslims, King Abdullah laid the foundation stones for many projects in Makkah and Madina to enable pilgrims do their rituals in comfort and peace. The SR4 billion Jamrat Bridge project got the praise of all Muslim leaders and pilgrims. The King also launched SR4.7 million projects for the Prophet's Mosque in Madina. The government has spent more than SR70 billion in recent years for development of holy cities of Makkah and Madina. Earlier this month, the King patronized the Jeddah Energy Meeting where he announced a package of measures to tackle surging oil prices. The King allocated $1 billion for an OPEC fund and offered $500 million in soft loans through the Saudi Fund for Development to finance projects in developing countries to obtain energy. This clearly reflects the King's keenness to make the international economy as stable as possible. Moreover, the King allocated millions of riyals for a program to finance researches related to energy and environment as well as the climate change. On the local level, the Kingdom has been working on massive infrastructure projects. The 2008 budget assigned some SR165 billion for spending on new and current projects. The recent three years also witnessed a call to raise the capitals of some development funds by SR25 billion. The General Investment Fund was supported by SR20 billion in the budget of the current fiscal year. In addition, last year's budget surplus was earmarked to reduce the public debt from SR660 billion to SR267 billion. Moreover, King Abdullah University for Sciences ad Technology was established in addition to many planned industrial cities. The budget surplus was also used in improving workers' efficiency and diversifying the economic base. It also focused on creating a balanced development in different regions of the country, developing scientific, technological and information researches. Environment protection and water resource preservation were also accorded due attention. Dr. Asad Jawahar, an economy expert, believes that the packages of formations in the economy field certify that King Abdullah plays a major role in tackling many economical issues in the Kingdom. “Setting new economic cities in many regions are great example of the serious steps of change,” Dr. Asad Jawahr, an economies expert, said. ” Although about 70-80 percent of the general income of the Kingdom comes through oil industry, King Abdullah encouraged local and foreign companies to invest in other resources with full support from the Saudi government,” he added. The King has been always keen to listen to his people and find out what problems they have. For that purpose he has toured various regions the country. He even visited some of the poorest districts in Riyadh and paid full attention to the residents of that neighborhood. The security of the country is one of the King's most important priorities. The King is keen to protect young men from embracing deviant groups. The King has also been keen to improve and update the country's judicial system. An amount of SR7 billion was allocated for the development of the system. In the political arena, the Kingdom has been adhering to the policy based on moderation, wisdom and farsightedness. “We can divide the Kingdom's history into three parts; establishment by King Abdul Aziz, an era of strengthening confidence in King Faisal's period and the last one is the era of the international elevation which is being sustained by King Abdullah,” Mohammed Al-Zolfah, a member of Shoura Council, said. King Abdullah has emphasized the importance of developing the joint Arab work in various domains as well as spreading the values of moderation, tolerance and dialogue. In 2007, the Kingdom hosted the 19th Arab summit in Riyadh where King Abdullah also declared his continued support for the Palestinians. In 2006, the King directed allocation of a grant of $250 million to the Palestinian people as part of the nucleus of an international Arab Fund to rebuild Palestine. King Abdullah has called for organizing donation campaigns to help the war-ravaged Lebanon and ordered depositing $1 billion at the Lebanese central bank for supporting the Lebanese economy during Israel and Hezbollah war. At Paris conference, held in 2007, the Kingdom extended assistance to Lebanon amounting to $1 billion in addition to a $100 million gift to the Lebanese government. In the international arena, King Abdullah visited a number of countries and held talks with their leaders on issues of mutual interest. A major shift in Saudi Arabia's foreign policy was King Abdullah's visit to the Vatican and meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and calling for dialogue between different faiths and cultures. According to Al-Zolfah, the most important achievements in the recent years were the efforts to change the image of the Kingdom in the international media. “Encouraging women to involve in many aspects of the Saudi community, combating terrorism, his call for dialogue and paving roads for political participation through municipal councils prove that King Abdullah is playing a major role to develop Saudi Arabia,” he added. __
