year. This significant spare production capacity will mitigate any future shortages. The Kingdom has also made an unprecedented commitment to expand our refining capacity, both at home and abroad, to help correct the imbalances between crude-oil quality and refining configurations. The petroleum industry is a long-range business, with project horizons necessarily spanning decades into the future. Such investment reflects the Kingdom's commitment, despite current economic conditions, to implement its business strategy and infrastructure development plans to help ensure long-term market stability and availability of energy supplies. We are confident about the future role of oil, and we are confident that our investment program will yield great dividends for consumers here in Asia and elsewhere. Today I assure you that Saudi Arabia is committed to the availability of petroleum to global markets, and especially for developing and emerging countries. This pledge is backed by concrete plans and actions, and by the commitment of some $70 billion for capital projects. For example, in 2005, our national oil company, Saudi Aramco, signed a memorandum of understanding with Sumitomo Chemical of Japan to build a massive, integrated refining and petrochemical complex on the west coast of Saudi Arabia. The resulting company, Petro Rabigh, has begun operations this year, and will be one of the world's largest integrated refining and petrochemical facilities. Another success story is the recent signing of the Rabigh Project II memorandum of understanding with Sumitomo Chemical on April 19. This major expansion extends value chains, and affords such benefits as job creation, technical knowledge transfer, and diversification of the Kingdom's economy. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to highlight the key points I hope to convey this morning. Today's bleak economic and financial conditions notwithstanding, Saudi Arabia believes that energy demand will continue to grow in years to come, from the standpoints of the forthcoming economic recovery, the enduring aspirations of all nations for greater prosperity, and energy-intensive population spikes around the world projected for the coming decades. Energy will be required to fuel this recovery and future demand, and petroleum, which powered the sweeping advances of the 20th century, is ready to serve this new era of growth. I would like to close by emphasizing my full confidence in Asia as a global engine of growth and development, and a model of cooperation. As members of this great continent, the nations represented here have much in common – not the least of which are mutual respect and mutual hopes for a sustainable future through oil-market stabilization, climate-change mitigation, energy-poverty alleviation, and a return to prosperity for Asia, and for the entire world. Thank you for your kind attention".
