Saudi Arabia Participates In Pakistan Minerals Summit – OpEd
Vice Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Mining Affairs Eng. Khalid Saleh Al-Mudaifer has confirmed that mineral resources played a crucial role in augmenting the industrial sector, creating job opportunities and achieving economic growth.
Al-Mudaifer made these remarks while participating in Pakistan Minerals Summit, which was held in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. He noted that the mining industry has been the driving force behind the economic development of many countries around the world.
The mining industry offers promising opportunities, and therefore everyone must seize these opportunities by formulating new regulatory standards and adopting world-class environmental, social and institutional governance practices, in addition to the use of the latest technologies and investing in the infrastructure and human resources, he said.
“This is what we are aspiring for today through our presence in Pakistan to cooperate with our partners in the industry and mineral resources system and in the private sector,” Al-Mudaifer said.
He stressed that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are connected with strong relations, and share historical and cultural ties and successes. “We are working together to expand our relations in the fields of trade and investment,” the vice minister said.
Al-Mudaifer noted that the mineral-rich region, which extends from Africa to West and Central Asia, including Pakistan, has enormous potential, and this would change the rules in developing flexible and responsible mineral value chains, as well as providing the minerals that the world desperately needs, especially with the high and growing global demand for essential minerals required in clean energy technologies.
It is expected that the industrial transformation projects and initiatives will be doubled to meet the local demand for minerals, he said, adding that this contributed to their use of the best and safest technologies in the world to conduct more surveys and exploration to discover new mineral deposits.
Saudi Arabia has worked in the past to fully develop the mining sector. It launched the world’s largest and most recent regional geological survey on an area of 600,000 square kilometers from the Arabian Shield region spending more than US$1.5 billion, in addition to developing the national database for earth sciences, which contains 80 years of Saudi geological records.
The Kingdom has also issued a Mining Investment Law, which is distinguished for its transparency, clarity and the principles of environmental, social and institutional governance.