The Shoura Council issued the statement during the opening of its seventh regular meeting and the 70th regular session chaired by the council’s chairman, Abdullah Al-Asheikh.
The king announced Saturday a record surplus budget SR 9 billion for 2013, projecting expenditure at SR 820 billion and revenues at SR 829 billion.
The budget allocated SR 285 billion for new projects, SR 204 billion for education, SR 100 billion for health, SR 65 for transport and SR 57 billion for water, industry and agriculture.
“We hope it will be a budget of goodness and blessing for Saudis as well as other Muslims,” the king said.
King Abdullah said the budget reflects the government’s plan to increase spending to strengthen the economy. He said greater spending would create more job opportunities for Saudis and improve services being extended to the public. He reiterated the government’s desire to invest more in the country’s human resources.
Speaking to reporters, Shoura Council Secretary-General Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Amro described it as a historical budget, which covers all important areas including education, health, transport and social development.
He added that a closer look at the new budget would clearly indicate the interest shown in citizen-centric projects which would directly benefit the people.
The house pledged its support for the effective implementation of the budget proposals by coordinating with the relevant governmental organizations to execute the budget plans as envisaged by the king.
Shoura Council’s Assistant Speaker Fahad bin Mutad Al-Hamad said the house urged the Ministry of Health to expand its Home Health Care Program in coordination with private hospitals to treat chronic ailments.
The Home Health Care Program has exceeded 15,000 patients since it was introduced in April 2010. According to Nasser bin Saleh Al-Hozaim, supervisor of the program, home health care is provided throughout the Kingdom in the form of curative, preventive, rehabilitative, palliative and counseling services.
There are 940 health officials who are divided into 216 teams working in the field in all parts of the Kingdom’s health regions. They are linked to 138 hospitals throughout the Kingdom to attend to the health needs of those patients confined to their homes.
The official said 31 percent of the patients covered under the program suffer from chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiac and renal diseases.
