JEDDAH – Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah Province, commended the National Commercial Bank (NCB) role in supporting the productive families, as well as its participation in all events that support those families and market their products. He urged other banks to follow NCB's model. “This is the field where all should compete, and I would like to extend my appreciation to NCB for their ongoing participation in such events, and I do hope that all other banks can adopt the same attitude.” Prince Khaled delivered a speech in the opening ceremony of the Second National Productive Families Conference & Exhibition held recently at Hilton Jeddah and lasted for 3 days under the slogan “Toward building the ideology of …Made in KSA” with the attendance of Prince Misha'al bin Majed, Governor of Jeddah. More than 300 officials and experts participated in the event. Al-Faisal honored NCB as the SR partner in the event for the second consecutive year. On another hand, Eng. Mahmoud Turkistani, Vice President and Head of Social Responsibility Department at NCB, presented to Prince Khaled an art work produced by a woman benefited from AlAhli Productive Families Program. This is the second consecutive year for NCB to participate as a social responsibility partner under the patronage of Prince Khaled Al-Faisal. In line with the overall vision and strategy of the Kingdom which aims to include the productive families in the Kingdom development plans, support the family members, and develop visible programs for their qualification and training, NCB has put a strategic objective to “enable the Saudi productive families.” Prince Khaled toured around the accompanying exhibition where AlAhli Productive Families Program beneficiary women are participating, and praised their various products and exhibits. Prince Khaled also visited NCB Pavilion at the exhibition and listened to a presentation on NCB job opportunity programs and read through the latest handbook issued by the bank under the title “Local Products by National Hands”, which showcases the projects, products and services of 50 beneficiaries of the program, men and women. In 2006, NCB designed AlAhli Productive Families Programs within its social responsibility programs with the objective of enabling and supporting the productive families by training, encouraging and financing. A number of 8575 women benefited from the program and 93 percent of them started to present real production. NCB participation in this event comes in the context of the bank's vision that puts Saudi society on the top of its strategic objectives. Also, sponsoring such event showcases the bank's objective to support the development of productive families' cadres, integrate their projects into the national economy, and enable them to face all challenges. The bank gave all the program graduates the opportunity to exhibit their products. Eng. Mahmoud Al Turkistani also participated in the 2nd day of the conference sessions with a work paper discussing the role of national banks to support and develop productive families. The forum discussed many national initiatives of institutional approach to enhance the productive families' efforts, and focused on the strategic importance of productive families' concept in the modern world economies, in addition to presenting experiences from advanced countries in serving productive families to benefit from. The forum also tackled the available opportunities for the success and establishment of productive families' concept in the Kingdom, as well as introducing the role of public sector institutions, the Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry and national big companies to support the productive families. — SG
