Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation, and Inspector-General HRH Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, who is also Chairman of the Ministerial Committee on the Environment, in a speech prepared on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of the Arab Environment Day to be celebrated on October 14, expressed the hope of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that all Arab countries will endeavor individually and collectively to upgrade local and regional environmental levels, by halting pollution and the deterioration of the ecology. Prince Sultan stressed that this problem receives a great deal of attention from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, with human and financial resources dedicated to protecting and preserving the environment. In this respect the Saudi private sector cooperated with several government agencies to organize an environmental exhibition which was the first of its kind not only in the Kingdom but in the Arab world, with more than 100 companies and 30 public bodies participating.

Prince Sultan reported that this year there have been three important environmental events in which the Kingdom played a major role. First, there was the establishment of a regional authority for the preservation of the marine environment in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden as a result of an agreement signed in Cairo earlier this month by seven Arab countries located in the Red Sea area, with Saudi Arabia chosen as the location of this new agency. Second, the regional conference of the International Federation for the Protection of Nature and Natural Resources was convened in the Kingdom, and was attended by western and central asian states as well as north african countries. Third, last week in Jeddah the "Sea to Sea" conference was held as one of the fruits of the calculated planning and intensive efforts of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Environment Program.

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