Riyadh, Oct. 31, 2019, SPA -- Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf, Minister of State and Member of the Cabinet, explained today that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is busy preparing for the forthcoming G20 summit, scheduled to be chaired by the Kingdom in 2020, noting that the concerned authorities have held a number of high-level meetings presided over by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Chairman of the Council of Economic Affairs and Development and Chairman of the Public Investments Fund. This came at the closing of the 3rd Investment Future Initiative 2019 which took place in Riyadh from 29 - 31 October 2019. Al-Assaf disclosed that the agenda of summit includes pending issues related to macroeconomics and dealing with matters related to financial control and structural reforms, noting that each presidency of the G20 summit will include specific issues related to the host country. Among the most important issues concerning the Kingdom is how to tackle the empowerment of women and youths, Al-Assaf said, noting that despite the Kingdom's short experience, it found itself successful in these two fields, in their capacity as growth-attracting fields. He added that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a developing and a donor country at the same time, benefiting a number of nations as well as a shareholder of international and regional finance foundations. Al-Assaf described the Kingdom's economy as the biggest in the region, playing a special role in the G20 in its capacity as a developing country which shares common issues with other developing countries, thus playing the role of a bridge between these two roles. He drew the attention that the Kingdom would take care, through its presidency, of the issues pertaining to developing countries and how to help them meet the requirements of the objectives of the developmental millennium which ought to be reached as per the Kingdom's vision 2030 to accelerate achieving those goals. He explained that environmental issues would receive high interest of the summit in addition to sustainability and climate change. He highlighted the Kingdom's experience of storing carbon and transferring it to a environment friendly, in addition to storing gas. Al-Assaf said the G20 agenda will include forests elimination and desertification as well as renewable energy, including solar energy and wind, citing that the Kingdom is producing desalinated water using solar energy. He drew the attention to the fact that Saudi Arabia is investing in electric vehicles, citing its hosting formula I and electric formula and explaining that the Kingdom is not focusing on oil or its resources. He said Saudi Arabia's leaders would focus on issues related to economic safety and political stability. Al-Assaf said everybody knows that the world economy is recessing, but work with the G20 leaders could result in pushing the wheels ahead, as well as tackling the issue of poverty in the world to achieve the objective of sustainable development. --SPA 23:10 LOCAL TIME 20:10 GMT 0033 www.spa.gov.sa/w1201891