Investment Insurance Information No. (335)
The Social Security Investment Fund is the largest investment fund in the Kingdom, and manages investment portfolios amounting to approximately (12.8) billion dinars.
The Fund has an investment board consisting of (9) people, and has an executive management that enjoys a kind of administrative independence, but it still invests within traditional investment tools, even though the goal of establishing the Fund is to maximize the return on investing the money of subscribers to the guarantee, for the purpose of supporting the sustainability of the insurance system.
It is noteworthy that the Investment Board remains confined to the meeting room, which it holds once a month, and that the Fund's executive management often prefers office work to field work.
Today, the situation, the work style, and the way of thinking must change, and we must break away from monotony and tradition, especially after the experience of development decentralization and the formation of provincial councils, which are legally charged with development planning in the Kingdom's provinces.
Hence, I suggest that the Social Security Investment Fund, represented by the Investment Council and the Fund's presidency, conduct work tours in the governorates and hold regular meetings with the governorate councils and their municipal councils to discuss any investment and development projects that could be implemented in partnership between the Fund, the councils, and the private sector. Perhaps the Fund could lay its hands on promising investment and development opportunities and closely examine the reality of investment and development in these governorates in consultation with their councils. The people of Mecca know their valleys best, and this would also translate into the true partnership that the King calls for between various parties, which would benefit the nation. However, for the Fund to be satisfied with some simple investments in the governorates in the form of paralyzed and inactive tourist resorts is a mistake and a sin indeed..!