Khabar-Amlak
The Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, HRH Prince Mansour bin Miteb bin Abdulaziz, sponsored the activities of the «2024 Contracting Industry» forum organized by the Eastern Chamber at its main headquarters in Dammam during the past week, which witnessed the presentation of 10 important working papers that addressed the issues of the sector, plans and strategies for its development, and the future of the contracting industry, as well as the active participation of a number of experts locally, regionally and internationally, as well as the participation of a number of competent ministries.

Transferring land grants
His Royal Highness Prince Dr. Mansour bin Miteb bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, revealed the formation of a coordination committee between his ministry and the Ministry of Housing to facilitate the transfer and organization of lands allocated for granting citizens.
During his patronage of the opening ceremony of the Contracting Industry Forum at the Eastern Chamber, His Royal Highness said that those on waiting lists for municipal grants will be transferred to the Ministry of Housing according to the principle of entitlement, stressing that his ministry will transfer all waiting lists at its disposal, as the Ministry of Housing will adopt the appropriate requirements and entitlements to distribute them to citizens.
He explained that the Ministry of Municipality and Rural Development is now working on developing a list of municipal fines and will be announced as soon as it is finalized: The building and construction sector in the Kingdom is one of the most effective sectors in achieving economic and urban development, and its activity draws an important and reliable indicator of the movement and trends of the national economy, announcing the imminent implementation of an automated system that will shorten the period of obtaining the certificate of classification of contractors by the Ministry, and work on it within two months.

His Highness also confirmed the imminent implementation of an automated system that shortens the duration of obtaining the classification certificate by the Ministry, expecting it to be implemented within two months.

For his part, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Eastern Chamber Abdul Rahman bin Rashid Al-Rashed appreciated the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Dr. Mansour bin Miteb bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, stressing that it reflects his interest in this important sector and represents a strong support for the opinions and proposals put forward in the forum sessions, noting that the patronage is an incentive to continue the Chamber in its initiatives to discuss the status of the sector and provide appropriate visions for its development.

Workshops.

Workshops
The forum witnessed the discussion of 10 important working papers, as well as the participation of a group of prominent international and local figures in the field of contracting, experts in the contracting industry, officials in the Ministry of Labor, contracting offices and engineering consultants.
The working papers included important titles, namely: Economic performance indicators for the contracting sector, the future vision 2024 for the contracting sector, the indicative contract and its impact on the sector, the Fadak contract, innovative sources of financing in the contracting sector, the Malaysian experience, the National Authority for Contractors, the role of the contracting sector in localizing jobs, contracting and localization, where these papers reflected the role of the private sector in the Eastern Province in general, and the contracting sector in particular, and discussed issues of important economic sectors in the region, and activating their role, and within the initiatives of the Chamber to improve the investment environment in the region in particular, and the Kingdom in general, in addition to its role in encouraging local investments Themes and Sessions
In the first session, the legal advisor at the Ministry of Finance, Salem bin Saleh Al-Mutawa, spoke on (the new draft public works contract and its impact on the contracting sector), as well as Dr. Engineer Nabil bin Mohammed Abbas from Abbas Consulting Office on (Fadak Contract), and Dr. Saeed bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the National Commercial Bank Group, spoke on (innovative sources of financing in the contracting sector) ... The session was chaired by Talat Hafez Zaki, Secretary General of the Information and Bank Awareness Committee of Saudi Banks.
In the second session, chaired by Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al-Mutrif, consultant at the Malaysian Contracting Industry Development Board, Mohammed bin Faisal Abdul Hamid, spoke about the experience of the State of Malaysia in supporting the contracting sector, and Dr. Alaa Zeitoun, Director of Strategic Projects Implementation - Booz Anel Hamilton, on (Contracting Industry - Influences and Variables). Dr. Fahad bin Mohammed Al Hammadi, Chairman of the National Contractors Committee, on the National Contractors Authority. In the third session, which was chaired by former Shura Council member Engineer Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Qweihs, Ziad Al-Sayegh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labor for Customer Services and Labor Relations, spoke about (the role of the contracting sector in localizing jobs), while Fawaz bin Abdullah Al-Khodari, member of the Contracting Committee, CEO of Abdullah Al-Khodari Sons Company, spoke about (contracting and localization), and Salem bin Saleh Al-Mutawa, legal advisor at the Ministry of Finance, spoke about (legal understanding of contracting regulations and provisions and its role in the distinguished contracting industry). Abdullah bin Ali Al-Marwani, General Supervisor of the Studies and Research Department at the Ministry of Economy and Planning, spoke about development projects in the Ninth Development Plan. The forum also reviewed the extent to which the localization programs (Nitaqat, the financial compensation decision) suit the nature of work in the contracting sector, the role of the Human Resources Development Fund in supplying the contracting sector with labor, the efforts made to encourage Saudi workers to work in the contracting sector and the efforts of the Ministry of Labor in supplying the contracting sector with the required labor.

300 billion riyals of investments in the construction sector.

300 billion riyals of contracting investments
«The sector is one of the largest economic sectors in the Kingdom and absorbs workers in private sector establishments, absorbing about 3.5 million workers, which represents about 45.1 percent of the total number of workers in all major economic activities in private sector establishments, according to 2011 data, which confirms the importance of this sector in creating additional job opportunities. The number of Saudi workers in the building and construction sector reached about 252 thousand workers in 2011 and this is what will be focused on in the discussions of the forum to reach optimal ways towards the adoption of a practical program He pointed out the active participation of the ministries of finance, labor, municipal affairs, economy and planning, in addition to the participation of a number of prominent international and local figures in the field of contracting, experts in the contracting industry, officials from local and international contracting and engineering consulting companies and financial experts, explaining that the number of classified contractors, according to the classification agency until April 2012, reached about 2769 contractors, 43.1 percent of them concentrated in Riyadh, 16.8 percent in Mecca and 13.8 percent in the Eastern Province.

Role of the Forum
The forum was held to emphasize the interest in the contractor sector, and keen to solve all issues facing contracting companies in the Eastern Province, and help them overcome all obstacles that reduce their contribution to national development, develop the performance of the local economy, develop the role of contractors in the economies of the region and the national economy, and raise the level of their performance in the comprehensive Saudi development process.