Council of Saudi Chambers issued the following announcement on March 15.
The National Committee for Endowments at the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) hosted during its first meeting HE Dr. Saad Al Shethri, member of the Council of Senior Scholars and Consultant at the Royal Court.
Chairperson of the Committee, Badr Al Rajhi, gave a presentation during the meeting on the mission and vision of the Endowment Committee, and its strategic goals to develop the sector in the Kingdom, which include facilitating relevant barriers, adopting initiatives, making suggestions, and creating partnerships with concerned bodies in Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Al Shethri gave an address in which he praised the role of CSC and the National Committee for Endowment in enhancing the sector, which he described as vital to the Saudi Vision 2030.
Among the strategic initiatives of the Endowment Committee are identifying and seeking solutions to challenges, coordinating with concerned bodies to enhance and represent the sector, coordination among relevant committees to avoid double standards, developing innovative programs, benefiting from and circulating relevant committees’ experiences, organizing an annual ceremony to honor prominent committees and members, supporting the formation of subcommittees at Chambers of Commerce & Industry, and sharing best practices in the sector.
Eng. Al Rajhi stated that the Endowment Committee, in coordination with institutions from the sector, identified 14 obstacles that hinder its work in the Kingdom, which will be submitted to and addressed with concerned bodies. These obstacles include selling, moving, and buying endowments, compensations for expropriated endowments, amending endowment instruments, long legal procedures, and lack of exemptions from taxes and government fees, among other obstacles.
As to solutions, some of the suggestions included appointing an authority to evaluate endowments when selling or buying them, removing the Court of Appeal from the process and sufficing with the relevant judge decision, depositing payments directly to the endowment bank account, enabling evaluators to amend endowment instruments when necessary, issuing a circulation to all related government agencies and banks informing that the evaluator has all the powers except for selling or buying, and uploading relevant guidelines and documents to the Ministry of Justice website to facilitate the procedure, among other solutions.
Al Rajhi concluded his address by revealing that efforts are currently taking place between the National Committee for Endowments, the General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments, and concerned bodies to make the Committee branches at all Chambers of Commerce & Industry fully integrated with the sector so as to elevate its performance in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 endeavors in regards to the non-profit sector.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up