Other Developments A number of factors and developments have enhanced the confidence of the private sector leading to its robust growth. These include: a. The implementation of the capital market law after the appointment of the market authority board in July 2004. Its first operation was the approval of offering part of the shares of telecommunication Company (Ithad Itisalat), and (70) percent of the shares of the National Company for Cooperative Insurance will be sold to public before the end of the year. b. The (A+) long-term local currency and (A) long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating assigned to the Kingdom by Standard & Poor's for the second year in a row. c. The (A) sovereign credit rating assigned to the Kingdom by Fitch in 2004. d. The stock market index continued to increase during 2004 closing at almost (7900) on 6/12/2004 compared to (4400) at the beginning of the year. e. New fiscal, institutional, and structural reforms have been introduced in 2004 such as the new corporate tax law, mining code, and the by-laws of natural gas pricing, the by-laws of the program for loan guarantees of small and medium enterprises (SME's), and the by-laws of private sector participation in electronic government activities. f. Active participation of the private sector in the government procurement with the total number of government contracts signed with the private sector in 2004 amounted to (2850) contract with a value around SR (38) billion.
