Makkans welcome return of Prince Khaled as governor

JEDDAH: People in the Makkah Province have wholeheartedly welcomed the reassignment of Prince Khaled Al-Faisal as their governor, as announced in Thursday’s royal decree. They hope that with the return of Prince Khaled, known for his strict governance and discipline, the holy city will once again reverberate with activities, notably, workshops, government council meetings, excellence awards and inspection tours. During his tenure as governor, Makkah witnessed a giant leap in all fields — economic, cultural and social. A number of governorates were promoted and the municipal budgets increased for projects. This was reflected in serving the citizens directly from the governorate, implementing public sector projects, and creating thousands of job opportunities. Citizens also are aware of the way projects were implemented with the deadline set for them for completion during the prince’s administration. This led to the culture of transparency in project implementation, notably those related to floods and overpasses. “We hope such mechanisms are applied in the railway and airport projects as well,” a citizen said. Prince Khaled has always been against provisional and temporary solutions, and detests the work of paving and asphalting roads carried out before his scheduled visits. He also showed his displeasure about posting or hanging welcome billboards and signs during such visits. They expect the prince will once again convene youth meetings in his office, where heads of government bodies, council members and the other concerned parties meet together to discuss projects, the time schedule for their completion and withdrawal of the delayed projects from contractors. Experts in the urban development sector said the return of Prince Khaled will accelerate the pace of work in projects, especially as most of the strategic projects were planned by him and he engaged national and international firms in these projects. Prince Khaled always kept his eyes on the media to follow up any complaints and reports, one expert said. Saeed Al-Amoudi, a real estate development expert, said the residents of Makkah give credit to Prince Khaled for the speedy achievement of projects and the quantum leap in providing some government utilities, which contributed to the development of the region. Al-Amoudi hoped that with the return of Prince Khaled the pace of development will gather speed, problems facing government bodies will be solved and paperwork at government offices reduced. The deputy chairman of the property assessment committee in Makkah, Imad Al-Rasheed, said Prince Khaled is known for his leadership qualities. “He always supervises the projects himself and does not settle for what is written in the reports of the committees. This has made him a very successful leader in economic, cultural, tourism and social fields,” added Al-Rasheed. He expects the return of the prince will solve many problems facing the public and private sector projects, mainly the housing issue and activate tourism projects in Jeddah and Taif. -arabnews