Riyadh– The Covid-19 pandemic had introduced many unprecedented economic consequences for the international and local economies. It disrupted work, trade, and economic systems. It escalated the state of uncertainty and decreased confidence in the global economy. Thus, many governments around the globe saw the necessity to intervene to secure their economies and protect their social systems. To that end, the Saudi leadership swiftly activated government efforts to support society and the local economy. Since March 2020, the National Development Fund (NDF) became at the core of these efforts, exercising one of its primary roles: to support the country in times of economic fluctuations by acting counter-cyclically and being an engine of continued growth. NDF and its supervised development funds and banks sought to aid the health care and education sectors, support citizens, and stimulate the local economy with financing that exceeded more than SR28 billion.
NDF closely monitored the consequences of the pandemic and directed its support to all economic sectors while focusing on the most affected segments. Initiatives from the Social Development Bank and Kafalah Program were introduced to finance small and emerging enterprises specialized in health care and education. In addition to financing medical and pharmaceutical projects and restructuring loans for small, medium, and large medical projects through the initiatives of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund. NDF also targeted to support employment in the private sector, train employees, finance individuals, and enable self-employment through the initiatives of the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) and the Social Development Bank. NDF provided its support to the agricultural sector by stimulating small and medium enterprises and facilitating the import of agricultural products through the initiatives of the Agricultural Development Fund. Moreover, NDF adopted initiatives of Kafala Program to support the Hajj and Umrah sector, sports sector, and supply chains. The support was also extended to the aviation sector to overcome the exacerbating negative effects the industry was under.
The support beneficiaries have exceeded (350,000) individuals and (36,000) large, medium, small, and micro-enterprises. NDF continues its role in enhancing confidence in the economy by easing pressure on the state’s budget through development financing and acting as an effective tool to confront and mitigate the effect of fluctuation in economic cycles and engine for continued growth in the Kingdom’s economy to achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.
On the other hand, the role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not limited to supporting the local economy, as it was one of the first countries that took the initiative to maintain global balance and support unprivileged countries. The Saudi Fund for Development launched an initiative to postpone outstanding debts and restructure the soft loans for (33) developing countries worldwide to ease their burden and enable them to focus on their response to the Covid-19 pandemic in a manner that serves their economic and social priorities.
Source: Saudi Press Agency