The efforts based on further expanding the number of universities, technical and technological colleges as well as schools of general education; increasing admissions and offering more scholarships for study abroad and increasing budgetary allocations for promoting health and social services represent a sound strategic option for enhancing the sound march of economic development and will bear fruitful results, God willing. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, The economic indicators observed by SAMA indicate a continuous high inflow of direct investments in almost all sectors, and a deeper and more solid national economy. This, in turn, was reflected by the International Rating Agencies’ increase of the Kingdom’s credit rating and the remarkable interest of the world top investors in the Kingdom’s investment opportunities. Your wise directives have emphasized that the development and investment efforts should cover all the Kingdom’s regions, which were supported by Your regional field visits around the Kingdom to increase growth and investment capacities and expand the economic base. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Inflow of direct investments to various productive sectors is a strong evidence of the Kingdom’s investment attraction and the interest of both local and foreign investor. Part of these investments flow through the Capital Market which plays a very important role in the economy. It provides additional channels for project financing, and, at the same time, it offers to investors diverse investment instruments.
Instead it is technological and organisational advances, together with innovations, that have largely been the driving forces behind productivity. During the 1990s a number of markets in Sweden were opened up to competition. This included the markets for electricity, telecommunications, post and a large part of the transport sector. At the same time, there was a general reinforcement of the competition policy through the establishment of the Swedish Competition Authority and the introduction in Sweden of a new, stricter law on competition. When competition stiffens, companies are forced to become more efficient and cost-conscious, which leads to an increase in productivity. Studies by the OECD indicate a clear relationship between deregulation of product markets and productivity growth. 3 This factor has probably been significant for the relatively rapid increase in productivity during the past 10-15 years. One important aspect in today’s globalised knowledge-based society is that competition promotes innovation and thereby productivity. 4 To avoid being driven out of the market companies are forced to constantly improve existing products and processes and also to develop new ones. Sweden is at the forefront in Europe and pointed out as an innovation leader alongside Denmark and Finland, for instance. 5 Another explanation for the growth in productivity in Sweden, as in many other countries, has been that the percentage of highly educated persons in the labour force has shown an increase trend, partly as a result of technological developments.