Toronto, SPA:
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz stressed in his speech delivered at the G-20 Summit, on the importance of reformation of fiscal systems so that World Economy can avoid facing such economic crises in the future. He said that imposing reinforced supervisory and control systems is better than imposing taxes on fiscal corporations.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken a number of actions in fiscal and monetary policies to counter the global financial and economic crises," the King pointed out.
"In the area of public finance, the Kingdom continued its investment program in both public and oil sectors with a total expenditure of $400 billion, the amount which was announced earlier in Washington. This amount of expenditure is the largest stimulus package announced by the Group's member states as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP); the program is being implemented as planned. This is in addition to increasing the capital of finance institutions to be able to provide additional funding for the private sector, especially large enterprises and small and medium Corporates.
The Kingdom has also taken several actions in the field of monetary policy, financial sector and trade. These measures have helped in reducing the impact of global financial crisis and help in enhancing the performance of the Saudi economy," the King said.
With regard to oil market developments, the King stressed that the fluctuation in oil prices which the world witnessed in 2008 and 2009, caused damage to the producing as well as consuming countries. Therefore, it should be for consuming countries to regulate stronger and effective financial and commodity markets. For its part, the Kingdom continued to apply its balanced oil policy to contribute to the stability of oil markets, also the kingdom has increased its production capacity to 12.5 million barrels per day.
The King demanded consuming countries to cooperate with the producing countries in order to ensure market stability, security of demand and supplies in order to ensure the flow of investments required in energy production. It is important to enhance the capabilities of poor countries' access to energy through the adoption of policies and practical programs to implement the initiative of energy for the poor.
The promotion of access to sources of clean and diverse energy that is reliable and affordable is essential to achieve sustainable growth and development. Our approach to support clean technologies should not include a bias or prejudice against oil and other fossil fuels."