The Shoura Council Monday approved draft rules to set up and manage service centers and gas stations on roads. Dr. Muhammad Bin Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, Secretary General, said the Council listened to the Housing, Water and Public Services Committee's observations and views about the draft rules for setting up and managing the facilities. The draft rules, which consist of 10 rules and principles, will improve the current situation, specify the features of the centers and establish them to make it easier for motorists to use the Kingdom's roads, he said. The Council gave its approval for the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs to be the authority in charge of licensing, monitoring and supervising these service centers. Once it is established, the General Authority for Service Centers and Gas Stations will oversee the facilities, the Council decided. The new rules, which contain many conditions, encourage specialist local and foreign companies to invest in service centers and gas stations, and their operation and management. The Council also approved the draft regulation for implementing the Convention on the Prohibition of Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction. The draft regulation contains 22 articles, one of which stipulates the establishment of a national commission to implement it; other articles specify penalties on violators. In meetings attended by officials from the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Aviation, and the Directorate General of Civil Defense, the Security Affairs Committee studied a number of aspects of the draft regulation for implementing the convention.
