The Minister of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD), Eng. Ahmed Bin Suleiman Al-Rajhi headed Saudi Arabia's delegation participating in the ministerial meeting of the Labor and Employment Group of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which was held in Paris, France on June 7-8, 2022. Eng. Al-Rajhi delivered the Kingdom's speech saying: "Under the Kingdom's presidency of the G20 for 2020, the members of the group committed to many measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 crisis on labor markets, including the Kingdom's pledge of $500 million to support global efforts to combat the coronavirus. The G20 countries continue to work under the presidencies of Italy 2021 and Indonesia 2022 to ensure a comprehensive, sustainable and resilient recovery of our labor markets and societies. He hailed the efforts made by the Kingdom during the pandemic period, as the government immediately established a new mechanism and governance to deal with crises through the establishment of the Supreme Coordinating Committee. The committee had membership of all ministers and relevant authorities under the presidency of the Crown Prince to take decisions on matters related to the response to the virus, including economic and financial stimuli. He stressed that the Kingdom's response to the crisis was quick and decisive by providing economic and financial stimulus packages, including 16 labor market initiatives. One of the examples of new programs is the launch of a program to defer payments for small and medium-sized companies, where more than 107,000 benefited from the program with a total value of SR181 billion ($50 billion). The participants in the meeting discussed a number of topics related to the labor sector, creating sustainable jobs and making the most of digital transformation. The Kingdom's participation in OECD ministerial meetings came in response to an invitation from the UK government and the organization itself as an intergovernmental organization comprising 38 countries and was established to stimulate economic progress and global trade. — SPA
