The activities of the Saudi Family Forum, organized by the Council for Family Affairs under the title “Family Economics”, concluded today in Riyadh, under the patronage of the Minister of Labor and Social Development, Engineer Ahmed bin Sulaiman Al-Rajhi, in the presence of the Secretary General of the Council, Dr. Hala Al-Tuwaijri, and a number of officials and personalities interested in social and developmental affairs, and lasted for two days. The day’s program included two sessions, the first of which was entitled “The Culture of Saving and its Importance for the Family,” moderated by Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Dakhil, and attended by Nadia Al-Ghashian, Mohammed Daleem Al-Qahtani, Dr. Eyas Al-Baroud, and Saleh Asiri, and touched on a number of topics such as managing family resources, promoting the culture of saving, financial planning and its importance, prioritization, in addition to reviewing a number of successful experiences.

On the other hand, the second session dealt with the topic of self-employment challenges and new opportunities, moderated by the Executive Assistant of the Family Affairs Council, Haila Al-Mukayresh, in which economic expert Mohammed bin Daleem Al-Qahtani, Deputy Governor of the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority, Dr. Sami Al-Husseini, and Lajin Al-Obeid spoke, and touched on a number of topics related to the reality of productive families in Saudi society, economic concentration among productive families, in addition to self-employment regulations in promoting economic empowerment and women’s work and their effects on the family. At the conclusion of the forum, the Secretary General of the Family Affairs Council, Dr. Hala Al-Tuwaijri, thanked the attendees and participants, and honored the members of the organizing committees for their distinguished efforts that contributed to the success of the forum, and crowned all the efforts exerted by the Council during the past period to appear the Saudi Family Forum in a way that meets the ambition and achieves the goals. In a press statement, Dr. Al-Tuwaijri praised the support of the Minister of Labor and Social Development for the forum, which contributed to achieving the hoped-for success, with the participation of more than 20 male and female speakers, noting the interaction witnessed by all sessions and workshops, which increased the chances of benefiting from them, and praised the visits to the accompanying exhibition by the forum attendees.

She emphasized that the role of the Family Affairs Council is very large, drawing attention to the interaction witnessed by the forum from the community, specialists and experts, which puts them in front of a great responsibility in terms of preparing for the upcoming forums and all future projects of the Council. She pointed out that all the results and outputs of the sessions and workshops were recorded and documented for everyone to see, especially since the forum served as a platform that enabled attendees and participants to identify the efforts made towards the family in the economic affairs, whether in the government sector, such as family-oriented initiatives and programs, or the private sector. Regarding the recommendations of the forum, Al-Tuwaijri stressed that the most prominent recommendations focused on the need to unify efforts for joint initiatives and agreements to be activated in the service of family issues, which is what those in charge of the Council will work to activate and the rest of the recommendations, pointing to other topics that must take serious steps regarding savings, family financial management, consumption and awareness about it, and we came out of this forum with very important ideas for future projects.

Regarding the organization of the forum in the rest of the Kingdom’s regions, Dr. Al-Tuwaijri explained that the Council is now expanding and there are family committees in all regional councils, and these committees work technically with the Council, noting that the Council seeks to implement such steps and initiatives to reach not only the administrative regions but also the governorates within each administrative region, indicating that the forum next year – God willing – will be regional and neighboring countries will be invited, because the exchange of experiences if it rises to an international level remains limited, adding that the Council is working to target the largest segment of society.