The “Abha Investment Forum” concluded its work last Thursday after its sessions witnessed extensive discussion during the period from 12 to 13 Rabiul Awal, where participants recommended urging the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs - represented by the Asir Municipality - to enhance the facilities provided by the state in granting leased land to strategic investment projects listed on the investment map provided by the Secretariat in the various governorates, by direct order, without the need to conduct a tender, to facilitate investors and achieve the objectives of the region.
The forum called for the need to create a developmental role for the Chamber of Commerce in Babha through cooperation with the concerned government agencies (Asir Region Emirate, Asir Municipality, General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities, Industrial Cities and Technology Zones Authority, each in its respective area) to support the efforts of investors and facilitate their procedures by establishing major strategic projects attracting local and foreign investments, provided that these projects are under the umbrella of the Chamber, such as projects to increase the tourism supply in the region, by launching a major company for the development and investment of real estate and tourism, while completing the steps to develop and establish a pharmaceutical factory project, to be placed with a pharmaceutical factory, provided by a pharmaceutical company.
The participants also recommended that major consulting companies should be present in the region by opening branches that provide their services to projects in the region at incentive prices for investors, small, medium and large projects: 14.0pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif'; color: #333333;'>.
The participants also recommended working to develop national human resources in the Asir region by launching a company to provide advanced regular private education services according to the needs of the labor market, provided that this company provides its educational services with international curricula from the stages of pre-primary education, through middle and secondary education, ending with university education, and the stages of implementation of the projects of this company include investing in a school with international curricula, in addition to the establishment of an engineering college to be the nucleus of a private university in other stages.
The participants in the forum called on the Ministry of Agriculture to prepare the investment portfolio of its lands in the Asir region, and the mechanisms for offering them to investors, so that they can be included in the investment map for all governorates of the region, and benefit from them in creating more investment opportunities in Asir.
The participants also recommended the importance of preserving the agricultural terraces that characterize the Asir region, due to the healthy irrigation method enjoyed by the products of these terraces, by urging the Agricultural Development Fund to increase its loans for this category.
The recommendations included urging King Khalid University to cooperate with the Babha Chamber of Commerce and Industry to design a statistical economic index for the region to measure both the economic performance and competitiveness of the region, as well as the cooperation of the Asir Municipality with the Babha Chamber of Commerce and Industry to allocate land to establish an international center for exhibitions and conferences under the umbrella of the Chamber, in addition to urging the concerned government agencies and the private sector to cooperate to provide the necessary support for tourism investments in various fields to increase the tourism supply, and to develop an effective mechanism to promote the region touristically to achieve the slogan "Abha Capital of Arab Tourism 2017 and finally the importance of
