Boosting human resources is equally important as financial agreements and investments in terms of growing the economy, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said on Sunday at the Riyadh Summit.
Khalid Al-Falih stressed that the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform plan puts great focus on making use of the Saudi youth.
The plan strives to equip the youth with proper skills to enable them to take advantage of the opportunities generated by the multibillion-dollar deals inked during the summit, as well as those signed with Asian partners during King’s Salman tour earlier this year.
Al-Falih said the deals will have a positive impact both on the economy and the people of the Kingdom, as hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created for the Saudi youth.
Touching on the oil sector, the minister said the Kingdom believes that extending the oil-cut agreement is enough to drain oil inventories.
“Extending the current agreement on global oil supply cuts until March next year, and adding one or two small producers to the pact, should be enough to reduce oil inventories.
“We believe that continuing the same level of cuts, plus eventually adding one or two small producers, will be more than adequate to bring the five-year balance to where it needs to be by the end of the first quarter of 2018,” he emphasized.
In the Kingdom’s talks with Russia about the oil-cut agreement, the minister said the two sides had constructive discussions.
OPEC and some non-OPEC producers agreed in December to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day for six months to help stabilize oil prices. That deal is due to expire at the end of June.
The Saudi and Russian oil ministers said earlier this month that they would lobby other producers to achieve “full consensus” on extending the policy of supply restraint at a meeting next week.

Source: Arab News