Saudi Arabia is committed to a continued spending on its national development program. And this will effectively contribute to stimulate the global economy, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Foreign Minister, said Wednesday. Addressing the opening session of the fourth Saudi-British forum titled “The Two Kingdoms Dialogue,” Prince Faisal said “British companies are invited to seize the opportunities provided by this huge program.” The Two Kingdoms conference is jointly organized by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the United Kingdom. The conference, which aims to consolidate relations between the two countries, especially at the level of the private sector and civil societies, takes place every two years. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was present at the opening of the two-day forum at the Conference Palace in Riyadh. UK public and private sector organizations such as the Treasury, HSBC and the London Stock Exchange were also represented at the conference, alongside key UK academics and members of the Saudi royal family. In addition to Miliband, British delegation included Baroness Symons; David Frost, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce; and David Vines, professor of economics at the University of Cambridge. In his speech, Prince Saud said that Saudi Arabia was studying all options to contribute toward global economic reform. He was optimistic that the decisions made by the G20 leaders in their summit last week in London would have positive results and praised Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his government for successfully organizing the event. “Currently, it may be difficult to predict the magnitude of the effects of the decisions made by the summit. However, the unprecedented volume of the incentive program as well as the summit's decision to establish a council for the stability of the global financial are clear indicators toward restoring confidence, stimulating growth and reforming the international financial system in order to achieve stability, prosperity and development which are objectives of all of our countries,” Saud said. On the sidelines of the forum, a workshop was held on ways to overcome the negative impacts of the global financial crisis. Prince Saud said the Kingdom was looking forward to the recommendations from the workshop which were to be presented at the forum.
