Saudi Arabia

The UNIDO Programme seeks to improve the contribution of the private sector to industrial competitiveness and diversification within the framework of market liberalization based on the kingdom’s recent admission to the World Trade Organization

Furthermore, the programme aims to formulate, in cooperation with the Government of Saudi Arabia and the private sector, an industrial strategy founded on the expansion of technology-based industrial activities.

On 16 July 2006 UNIDO Director-General Kandeh K. Yumkella travelled to Saudi Arabia where he visited the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) at Jeddah, and the Ministry of Industry at Riyadh. The objective of the meeting with IsDB was to review the joint technical assistance cooperation between IsDB and UNIDO as well as to identify new possibilities and ways of strengthening the current partnership and technical assistance programmes. These programmes aim to reduce poverty alleviation through productive capacity, trade capacity-building, environment and energy, regional integration and South-South cooperation. The Director-General also met with the Deputy Minister of Industry, H.E. Dr. Khalid M. Al-Sulaiman. The meeting focused on the status of the Saudi Arabian Integrated Programme and other ongoing activities, including how UNIDO can increase its substantive role with regard to the national industrial strategy of the integrated programme.

During his visit to Saudi Arabia, the Director-General met with the Minister of Health H.E. Dr. Hamad Bin Abdullah Almanee, acting as Officer-in-Charge for the Minister of Industry, as well as with the Deputy Minister of Industry H.E. Dr. Khalid M. Al Sulaiman. They reviewed UNIDO technical cooperation with Saudi Arabia including the UNIDO contribution to the National Industrial Strategy for the possibility of establishing an investment and technology promotion office in the kingdom