Salam Al-Farsi said the King had noted that the new budget includes new projects and programs costing a total amount of nearly SR 75.5 billion. "The new budget aims at the ideal investment of the available financial resources in a manner that serves the requirements of the comprehensive development, giving priority to services that directly concern citizens such as health, education, social and municipal services. "Moreover, the new budget includes new development projects for all regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Dr Al-Farsi said . "These projects will positively contribute to improving the process of economic growth and to creating new job opportunities for the citizens as wall as encouraging the private investment. "This will also lead to the achievement of balance between revenues and expenditures." Dr Al-Farsi said SR 70,100,000,000 have been allocated for the sectors of public education, higher education and training of manpower. The new budget includes projects due to be implemented at the cost of about SR 14,650,000,000 in the fields of schools, universities and specialized colleges. A sum of SR 27,100,000,000 has been allocated for the sectors of health services and social development. The total amount allocated for the new projects in the health sector is SR 4,600,000,000. These projects include the establishment and renovation of 420 health primary health care centers in various parts of the Kingdom. They also cover 23 hospitals with a capacity of 3,150 beds. As regards the municipal services, the amount of SR 10,650,000,000 has been allocated for this sector. --mor 1843 Local Time 1543 GMT
