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Saudi Arabia appoints new finance minister

November 1, 2016

Jeddah, Nov 1: Saudi Arabia has appointed Capital Market Authority Chairman Mohammed Al-Jadaan as its new finance minister by royal decree, replacing Ibrahim Al-Assaf, who had held the post since 1996.

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Al-Assaf, 67, had been the last veteran member of Cabinet to remain in a key post through a series of government reshuffles after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman assumed power last year, including one in May that replaced the long-standing oil minister.

He has been made minister of state and will remain a member of the Council of Ministers, as the Saudi Cabinet is known, according to the royal decree.

The Finance Ministry is a key position in the Kingdom and the change is likely intended to support a wide-ranging economic reform plan to steward the Kingdom through an era of low oil prices.

As the CMA’s chairman, Al-Jadaan had overseen the loosening of regulatory requirements as Saudi Arabia opened its stock exchange to foreign investors over the last year.

Before his appointment as the CMA’s chairman of the board on Jan. 29, 2015, Al-Jadaan was one of the founding partners of the Al-Jadaan and Partners Law Firm and was listed in Chambers and Partners 2004-2014 as a leading lawyer in corporate/commercial and the banking/finance practice areas in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Jadaan has extensive experience in advising on all aspects of capital market, structuring, documenting and negotiating complex international project financings and providing counsel on corporate and commercial matters, including equity and debt public offering, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and shareholder agreements and matters pertaining to Islamic law and Islamic finance.

Al-Jadaan has also represented corporate and commercial clients before a number of key courts and judicial committees in Saudi Arabia.

He was also a special adviser to the board of directors at Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia.
Al-Assaf, will remain a Cabinet member, received a bachelor of arts degree in economic and political science from King Saud University, Riyadh, in 1971.

He later obtained a master of arts degree in economics from the University of Denver in 1976 and a PhD in economics from Colorado State University in 1982.

Al-Assaf initially pursued a teaching career, becoming a teaching assistant and then visiting lecturer at King Abdulaziz Military Academy from 1971 to 1983.

He was appointed an assistant professor and head of the Department of Administrative Services in 1982, and served until 1986.

During that period, he also served as economic adviser to the Saudi Fund for Development.

After leaving academia, Al-Assaf moved to Washington, DC where he represented Saudi Arabia at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

In 1986, he was appointed alternate executive director at the IMF for Saudi Arabia.

He left in 1989 to take up the executive directorship for Saudi Arabia at the World Bank.

Upon his return to Saudi Arabia in 1995, he served briefly as vice governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency.

He left to join the Council of Ministers as minister of state in October 1995.

In January 1996, he was appointed minister of finance and national economy, a position that was renamed minister of finance in 2003.

He replaced Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al-Khuwaiter as finance minister.

In addition to being finance minister, Ibrahim is a member of the board of directors of Saudi Aramco (since 1996), chairman of the Saudi Fund for Development and member of the Public Investment Fund board.

Monday’s decree also appointed new chiefs for the Public Transport Commission and the Saline Water Conversion Corporation.

It transferred responsibility for consumer protection from the Ministry for Commerce and Investment to Health Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah.

Al-Assaf last week said Saudi Arabia’s financial position remains strong despite sinking oil prices, although there is “some pressure” on bank liquidity.

“We have been able to maintain a good position in public finances,” Al-Assaf said.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

Kuwait, Aug 2: Kuwait has barred entry of foreign passengers from over 30 countries including India and China.

A circular from the Director General Civil Aviation, State of Kuwait directed all airlines operating at Kuwait International Airport to adhere to the instructions in this regard.

"Based on the decision of the Health Authority in State of Kuwait, no foreign passenger coming from the down listed countries will be allowed to enter the State of Kuwait," the circular read.

These include- India, Iran, China, Brazil, Colombia, Armenia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Syria, Spain, Singapore, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Iraq, Mexico, Indonesia, Chile, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Italy, North Macedonia, Moldova, Panama, Beirut ,Serbia Montenegro, Dominican Republic and Kosovo.

The circular stated that such restriction will also include the passengers were present 14 days before the date of travel until further notice.

The ban was announced the same day Kuwait began a partial resumption of commercial flights according to Khaleej Times, which quoted authorities stating that Kuwait International Airport would run at about 30 per cent capacity from Saturday, gradually increasing in coming months.

According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, Kuwait has reported 67,448 cases of coronavirus while the fatalities related to the virus stand at 453.

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News Network
May 10,2020

Dubai, May 10: Kuwait will enact a "total curfew" from 4pm (1300 GMT) on Sunday through to May 30 to help to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, the Information Ministry said on Twitter on Friday.

Further details of the curfew will be announced soon, it said.

Kuwait on April 20 expanded a nationwide curfew to 16 hours a day, from 4pm to 8am, and extended a suspension of work in the public sector, including government ministries, until May 31.

On Friday the Gulf state announced 641 new coronavirus cases and three deaths, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 7,208, with 47 deaths.

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News Network
May 7,2020

Dubai, May 7: Saudi Arabia will emerge as the victor of the oil price war that sent global crude markets into a spin last month, according to two experts in the energy industry.

Jason Bordoff, professor and founding director of the Center for Global Energy policy at New York’s Columbia University, said: “While 2020 will be remembered as a year of carnage for oil nations, at least one will most likely emerge from the pandemic stronger, both economically and geopolitically: Saudi Arabia.”

Writing in the American publication Foreign Policy, Bordoff said that the Kingdom’s finances can weather the storm from lower oil prices as a result of the drastically reduced demand for oil in economies under pandemic lockdowns, and that it will end up with higher oil revenues and a bigger share of the global market once it stabilizes.

Bordoff’s view was reinforced by Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell and one of the longest-standing directors of Saudi Aramco. In an interview with the Gulf Intelligence energy consultancy, he said that low-cost oil producers such as Saudi Arabia would emerge from the pandemic with increased market share.

“Oil is the only commodity where the lowest-cost producers have contained their production and allowed high-cost producers to benefit. When demand recovers this year or next, we will emerge from it with the lowest-cost producers having increased their market share,” Moody-Stuart said.

Bordfoff said that it would take years for the high-cost American shale industry to recover to pre-pandemic levels of output. “Depending on how long oil demand remains depressed, US oil production is projected to decline from its pre-coronavirus peak of around 13 million barrels per day.

“Shale's heady growth in recent years (with production growing by about 1 million to 1.5 million barrels per day each year) also reflected irrational exuberance in financial markets. Many US companies struggling with uneconomical production only managed to stay afloat with infusions of cheap debt. One quarter of US shale oil production may have been uneconomic even before prices crashed,” he said.

Moody-Stuart said that recent statements about cuts to the Saudi Arabian budget as a result of falling oil revenues were “an important step to wean the population of the Kingdom off an entitlement feeling. It means that everybody is joining in it.”

The former Shell boss said that other big oil companies would follow Shell’s recent decision to cut its dividend for the first time in more than 70 years. But he added that Aramco would stick by its commitment to pay $75 billion of dividends this year.

“When a company looks at its forecasts it looks ahead for one year, so for this year it (the dividend) is fine,” he said.

Bordoff added that Saudi Arabia’s action in cutting oil production in response to the pandemic would improve its global position.

“Saudi Arabia has improved its standing in Washington. Following intense pressure from the White House and powerful senators, the Kingdom’s willingness to oblige by cutting production will reverse some of the damage done when it was blamed for the oil crash after it surged production in March,” he said.

“Only a few weeks ago, the outlook for Saudi Arabia seemed bleak. But looking out a few years, it’s difficult to see the Kingdom in anything other than a strengthened position,” Bordoff said.

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