Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Chairs Cabinet's Virtual Session

NEOM, January 19, 2021, SPA -- The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Prime Minister, chaired today the Cabinet's virtual session. At the outset of the session, the Cabinet valued the speech of HRH the Crown Prince during his participation in the World Economic Forum. HRH the Crown Prince affirmed the role that the Kingdom has played and is still playing in the framework of promoting development, supporting the stability of the region, preserving the energy supply market, and working to establish security and peace. He also affirmed the role of the Kingdom in strengthening economic cooperation with partners and friends in the business community, and sharing major investment opportunities and new projects in the Kingdom within what is provided by the Kingdom's Vision 2030. The Cabinet expressed pride in the Kingdom's achievements in the rapid transformation and reforms since the adoption of the Kingdom's Vision 2030. These achievements include doubling non-oil revenues, empowering women in the labor market, raising the level of competitiveness in the business environment, and activating the role of the Public Investment Fund and the significant improvement made in protecting the environment, and the Kingdom’s initiative approved by the G20 Leaders Summit in 2020 regarding the circular carbon economy. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency following the meeting, Dr. Majid Al-Qasabi, Acting Minister of Media, pointed out that the Cabinet reviewed a number of reports on the developments of coronavirus domestically and internationally as well as the latest statistics of the pandemic in the Kingdom in view of the decrease of confirmed cases, and the decrease of active and critical cases, and the expansion of the vaccination campaign against the virus with the aim of achieving herd immunity. The Cabinet also reviewed a number of reports on preventive measures and protocols taken by the concerned authorities to prevent the spread of any new mutated strains of COVID-19. The Cabinet considered continuation of remote education for all stages until the 10th week of the second academic term as an extension of the leadership keenness on the safety of the students, and to protect them against contracting the Coronavirus, in light of the circumstances emerged due to the state provision of entire potentials to guarantee the continuity of the educational process and the successes achieved by remote education, during the past period despite the pandemic conditions. Dr. Majid Al-Qasabi pointed out that the Cabinet reviewed a number of issues and latest events at the Arab, regional and international arenas, reiterating that the Kingdom is pushing towards achieving security and stability in the region and support political solutions in Yemen, Syria and Libya. The Cabinet stressed the importance of reaching a just and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian cause, in accordance with the international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative and the importance of resuming negotiations between the two parties to achieve peace in the region. The Cabinet expressed the Kingdom's strong condemnation of the terrorist Houthi militia's continuation of violating Stockholm Agreement and continue using Hodeida Governorate as a launch site for hostile acts and terrorist attacks through launching ballistic missiles and bomb-laden drones, in addition to launching attacks using remotely controlled booby-trapped boats, which constitute a real threat to regional and international security and undermining political efforts. --SPA