RIYADH — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman announced on Monday that the annual general budget represents the beginning of an integrated and comprehensive working program to build a strong economy. Unveiling the budget for the fiscal year of 1437-38 (2016) at the weekly session of the Council of Ministers at Al-Yamama Palace here, the King said the economy is strong and capable to meet the challenges despite a sharp fall in oil prices and a slow global growth. "The new budget will boost public spending and will further bolster the relations between the public and private sectors," the King said while calling for reviewing the government subsidy system, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The King noted that the budget comes in the wake of a drop in global oil price, and regional and global economic and financial challenges, resulting in a slow global economic growth, coupled with instability in some of the neighboring countries. "We have instructed the concerned officials to take into consideration of this, and to give priority to complete the massive development projects, for which allocations have been made in previous budgets, and they are under various phases of implementation." "We have directed the Council of Economic and Development Affairs to work on launching economic and financial reforms and a comprehensive restructuring. This budget represents the beginning of an integrated and comprehensive working program to build a strong economy based on strong foundations with a focus on diversifying sources of income." "Through this, the savings would grow, job opportunities would increase, and partnership between the public and private sectors will be strengthened with continuing implementation of the development and service projects and upgrading various government services." The King also underscored the need for improving the efficiency of public spending, and review the government subsidy system with a gradual implementation to achieve efficiency in using the resources and curbing wastage. He stressed that this should be done by reducing the negative impact on citizens with medium and limited income, and increasing competitiveness of the business sector. King Salman also emphasized that it is the duty of government officials to accomplish their mission in serving the citizens in the best manner, saying "we don't accept any negligence in this respect." He also directed to continue reviewing the systems for the monitoring agencies so as to strengthen their efficiency and work performance, in a way protecting the public wealth and make defaulters accountable for it." The King also underscored to maintain the nation's security and stability to continue the march of growth and development.
