UNDP official lauds KSA's development achievements

(MENAFN- Arab News) RIYADH: UN Assistant Secretary-General Sima Bahous recently visited the Kingdom to hold talks with Saudi officials on regional issues.
Bahous also the United Nations Development Program regional director for Arab states was accompanied by Michael O'Neill who is also a UN assistant secretary general and UNDP director for external relations.
'They held talks with Saudi officials to strengthen partnership and discuss regional development of common interest' UNDP-Saudi Arabia said in a statement. The two UNDP officials proposed elevating UNDP's current relationship with the Kingdom to a strategic partnership level to pursue mutual development goals globally and in the region.
Bahous congratulated the Kingdom on its development achievements in terms of the Human Development Index advancing to 34th place in 2014 becoming one of the Very High Developed countries.
Bahous discussed deepening the existing partnership with the Kingdom and strengthening UNDP's presence in Saudi Arabia to expand its technical and substantive cooperation in meeting development demands in the country.
The UN officials also met with Prince Turki bin Saud Al-Kabeer Al-Saud undersecretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral Relations and Yousef bin Tarad Al-Saadoun undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Economic and Cultural Relations.
Bahous applauded the Kingdom's efforts in overseas development assistance humanitarian assistance and South-South cooperation. She also discussed efforts to support resilience in Yemen after the conflict.
During a meeting with Minister of Planning and Economy Adel Fakeih Bahous confirmed UNDP's commitment to provide technical expertise for the work of the ministry especially to support national planning and implementation of the post-2015 development agenda and the new sustainable development goals.
Bahous met with Majed Al-Qassabi minister of social affairs to discuss cooperation in the Kingdom's efforts to measure and analyze social indicators at the local level capacity development for NGOs and establishment of social innovation labs.
The two also met with Suleiman Al-Turki deputy minister for international finance to explore increased Saudi support to UNDP and urge participation of the Kingdom in the development conference in July in Addis Ababa and the climate change summit in December in Paris.