For his part, Eng. Abdullatif bin Abdulmalek Al Al-Sheikh, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, said that in light of the Kingdom Vision 2030, the National Transformation Program, and its initiatives, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs seeks to improve municipal work in the Kingdom into world-class levels and achieve sustainable and balanced urban development in all cities and regions in the Kingdom in order to making the citizen, expatriate and visitor to the Kingdom enjoying a decent life. The minister pointed out that there are significant challenges facing the municipal sector, most notably the rapid growth in the Kingdom's population, highlighting the rapid economic growth challenges and the consequent growth in all fields. He disclosed that the Saudi cities are expanding dramatically where the number of Saudi cities is 285 cities which mean 285 principalities and municipalities, stressing that the ministry's biggest goal is to raise level of city planning in the Kingdom and level of maintenance, public facilities and infrastructure. In this regard, the minister reiterated importance of raising level of integrity in the municipal sector and fight against corruption and violations, whether financial or administrative violations as well as raising level of employees in the municipal sector and expansion of privatization as much as possible to transform the ministry and principalities into organizer, planner and monitor. Eng. Al Al-Sheikh added that the ministry also seeks to raise financial self-sufficiency of the municipal sector which achieves today 10% of the financial needs where 90% are provided by the government in order to meet the requirements of this sector. He stressed the ministry's interest in establishment of healthy and safe environment in the cities of the Kingdom as well as enhancing the role of high health monitoring. --SPA 15:45 LOCAL TIME 12:45 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w