The Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry has launched a study to examine the “deteriorating” services at the country's ports and the performance of the rail, customs, labor and port authorities. The Council has asked all importers and traders in the Kingdom, particularly Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province to send in their observations on the performance of the four government authorities. The observations will be tabled at an upcoming meeting with the Council's Experts Commission, which wants to confront the four government bodies with the situation. In a short letter, Mushbib Aal Saad, Secretary General of the National Committees, said the Experts Commission launched the study. The Experts Commission had received directives to form a committee “to study the reasons for the deteriorating situation in the Kingdom's ports in general and Jeddah and Dammam ports in particular”. For this purpose, the first meeting was held with a number of government authorities including the Ministry of Finance, Saudi Railways Organization (SRO), Saudi Ports Authority and a high-level delegation from the Council of Saudi Chambers. The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Experts Commission in Riyadh. Engineer Abdullah Al-Mubti, Chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers, was briefed on the details of the first meeting. The meeting was held because the Minister of Economy and Planning wanted to determine current problems facing government agencies and to prepare for the drafting of the Tenth Development Plan. The government wants to ensure that it can allocate the necessary resources to build on the growth that has taken place under the previous development plans. __
