Future Minerals Forum 2024 Day 2: Workforce training key to sustainability in mining sector

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Quality of Life Program concluded 20 agreements and strategic partnerships with government agencies, the private sector, and the non-profit sector in 2023, resulting in the marketing and implementation of investment opportunities totaling SR800 million ($213 million) in various sectors.

The agreements aim to support the program’s responsibility to achieve goals targeting quality of life in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

Government agencies with which agreements and memoranda of understanding were reached included the Human Rights Commission; the Martyrs and Wounded, Prisoners and Missing Persons Fund; and the Eastern Province Municipality, which works to enhance the quality of services, improve the urban landscape, develop the tourism sector, and diversify entertainment opportunities.

The agreements work to improve the quality of life of citizens and develop real estate destinations, including the Marjan Island project, and the project to complete the King Abdullah Cultural Center in Dammam. They also resulted in the launch of the King Salman Park Real Estate Fund, in cooperation with Saudi Fransi Capital, and several studies, research papers and training courses and workshops that serve to improve the quality of life.

In order to encourage the practice of sports, increase Saudi Arabia’s contribution to arts and culture, and encourage hobbies, the program provided over 650 spaces on the Kingdom’s hobby portal “Hawi” for free or at nominal prices.

Private sector agreements, including the partnership with Al-Othaim Investment Company, also included developing a mechanism to benefit from the spaces it provides in its projects for cultural, artistic and heritage activities, in addition to studying the possibility of cooperation in supporting amateurs and their clubs, to contribute to raising the quality of life through developing and diversifying entertainment opportunities to meet the needs of the population.

In the non-profit sector, the program took an initiative to rehabilitate and treat orphans addicted to drugs to help raise awareness of the harm of narcotics, which is one of the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

This entails providing the necessary treatment and medical care for orphans who are beneficiaries of the Charity Orphans Care Foundation (Ekhaa) with an integrated program that helps them recover from addiction, in partnership with QLP, Ekhaa, and the Health Gates rehabilitation center.

The program also aims to raise awareness about the importance of hobbies through comprehensive advertising campaigns or participation in dialogue sessions or workshops.

It also works to create hobby clubs for recovering addicts, provide them with communication skills, and raise awareness about the benefits of engaging in hobbies.