Riyadh-Amlak
The Saudi Credit and Savings Bank has completed the construction of a new strategy for its financing programs for youth projects and performance in cooperation with the World Bank that will completely change the face of the bank, and now the strategy is presented to the bank's board of directors and is in the process of approval, and the coming period will witness a 180-degree transformation of the bank's performance, explained Dr. Ibrahim Al-Hanishel, General Manager of the Saudi Bank during a meeting hosted by the Riyadh Chamber represented by the Business Youth Committee and attended by a large crowd of young people.

Comprehensive strategy
Al-Hunayshil said: The strategy is characterized by comprehensiveness and expansion that sets flexible programs that expand to include providing financing for each project according to its activity and the nature of its work and not according to the five tracks currently followed, he said: The conditions for granting financing to projects will not be the same for all, but will be easy for those who are able to succeed in a way that serves the development and the national economy. He added: “The bank is coming strongly to support and incubate small and emerging projects: We chose the difficult path and endured criticism that we are bureaucrats, but we were walking by rules and scientific and deliberate steps, and we studied all existing obstacles and developed effective solutions, to achieve the bank's goals in serving the economy and youth.”

He explained that the bank increased the volume of loans to projects by 50% last year, and is in the process of increasing it in the coming years, especially after increasing the bank's capital in the current year's budget by 10 billion riyals to 46 billion riyals: The bank provides 11,000 loans per month with a total value of half a billion, which will be increased as of 6/15/2014 to 1.3 billion.
Speaking about the bank's efforts to support and finance small and emerging projects, he said: The main issue was that the Bank did not have a strong apparatus to serve these enterprises, so the Bank worked to strengthen this apparatus, support it with manpower and develop its tools and technical means. In this regard, he spoke about the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises to be established to take care of these projects, explaining that the project is now before the higher authorities in the country after all concerned parties participated in drafting its system.


Banks and large companies
Al-Hanishal added: There are proposals to assign the responsibility of managing the Authority to the Credit Bank, but the decision will ultimately be made by those in charge. If the responsibility is assigned to the Bank, it will strive to sponsor small and emerging enterprises, and if another party is chosen, the Bank will extend its hand in full cooperation with it to support these enterprises, and revealed that the Bank has concluded an agreement with the Industrial Cities Authority to provide industrial lands serviced by facilities for young industrial project owners, and if the conditions apply to the project owner, he will get the land: He also announced that there will be no lists of projects that are not financed by the bank in the coming period. He revealed an integration program approved by the bank with large entities to support small enterprises, which he said: “They need someone to support and care for them, pointing out that the bank will work with large companies to find this link, ”and we will cooperate with many entities to support these enterprises, and we will provide them with help in administrative and technical solutions, which constitute a cost that such enterprises cannot afford." He confirmed that the bank is committed to fulfilling the loan within a period not exceeding three months, and said that we have no delays now, but said: the responsibility for the delay, if it occurs, is on the applicant, and admitted that the bank was not supporting existing projects during the past three years. Small projects
Al-Hanishal addressed the reasons for the failure of small projects through the bank's experiences: He concluded that the failure rate of projects was high in the past, due to the lack of sufficient experience and training for project owners, as well as the fact that everything is provided free of charge and has a long repayment period, and concluded that the presence of wide facilities may cause the project owner to be lenient and not take responsibility, which is why the failure rates were high, and continued: The bank provides means to prevent failure through feasibility studies for projects, and the suitability of projects for the owner according to his abilities, pointing out that the bank has established a complete center for studies on all the needs of project owners.
He emphasized that the Bank's services are now provided electronically, and that it is in the process of developing them to become all electronic, noting that one of the best organizations in the field of communications and information technology has been assigned to create an electronic portal for the Bank at the highest technical level, not only to provide full information to small business owners, but also to complete their transactions with the Bank.

Addressing the imbalances in the labor market and the negative impact it has on the Saudi citizen, he said: The Saudi market is wide and rich, receiving and absorbing everyone, and a large number of non-Saudis benefit from the market, but he noted the efforts made by the state to control the market, pointing out that there are good regulations, but they need to be applied firmly, and he said: We, as Saudis, are responsible for a large part of these imbalances, through many practices, most notably cover-up, and said: We need non-Saudis in certain specialties, but it should not be opened wide. Young entrepreneurs
He talked about the bank's support for inventions and innovations, pointing out that some present ideas that may not be applicable or convert them into commercial projects, but he emphasized that the bank supports good ideas, and pointed out that a giant project for productive families will be born soon: The bank cooperates with charitable organizations that have the ability and desire to support productive families.
At the beginning of the meeting, Ali Al Othaim, Chairman of the Chamber's Business Youth Committee, welcomed Dr. Al Hanishal to present the means of support provided by the Credit Bank to young people aspiring to achieve success, and to open a constructive dialogue with them within the series of meetings held by the committee with business leaders, executives and officials of financial institutions to enrich their culture and enhance their capabilities He stressed that the issue of financing youth projects is one of the biggest obstacles facing young people, especially since financing bodies set strict conditions and controls in granting loans to projects, especially emerging and small projects, which often face the challenges of stumbling or failure.