Presided over by the Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, who is also the Chairman of the Economic and Development Affairs Council, the council held a meeting, at Al-Yamamah Palace here tonight. During the meeting, the Council discussed a number of economic and development issues, including development, in working to end and complete payment of amounts owed to the private sector, an action which delayed, in light of the sharp decline in oil revenues, completing state projects, associated measures taken by the state to review a number of projects and rearranging priorities of spending, according to their significance and efficiency, including the application of procedures over operational obstacles. The Council came out with a package of solutions and procedures for the settlement of dues that met the requirements, authorized by the chairman of the council, prior to being submitted to the King, in order to, immediately, begin to settle these dues and being completed, before the end of the current fiscal year, ends by December 2016. Payment of these receivable dues based on defining the priorities, to achieve transparency in the mechanisms and the launch of an electronic platform to automate receivables dues procedures and to achieve the highest degree of transparency, alos were discussed, while this platform shall represent a tool to provide accurate information about public expenditure. Public bodies reports that would raise the efficiency of expenditure, on actions taken to raise the efficiency of government spending, including orders and decisions of restructuring some sectors of government, and the actions taken, at the end of the last fiscal year and the beginning of the current fiscal year for review of the amounts approved for a number projects and aligned with the priorities, needs of development and standards of efficiency, in spending, which included a review of hundreds of contracts to re-schedule execution of some of them, modify contractual formulas and technical specifications for others, in accordance with the statutory regulations and the terms of the contract that contribute to the savings of tens of billions, were tackled, too. The Council also reviewed the actions and initiatives that aim to alleviate the effects of the measures to rationalize and review expenses, including developments in the work on the initiatives and programs designed to stimulate economic activity and the expansion of private sector participation, as well as developments in the work on organizational units set up to monitor the implementation of these initiatives, including units of local development and stimulation of the private sector.
