One of our biggest success stories at the ministry was establishing information management programs within a short period of time. The aim of this effort was to provide all schools throughout the Kingdom with internet access, and create a program that enabled both students and families to access and benefit from online materials and technology. One of these programs, Noor, functioned as both an online communication platform and a system for remote learning. The ministry was proud that the award-winning Noor was the largest program of its kind in the Middle East, if not the world, in terms of the number of users in a short period of time. There were also several programs that focused on the management of the ministry’s financial and administrative resources, such as Faris and other programs that aimed to facilitate information access and create the suitable environment to achieve future growth.
At the ministry, we believed that building the future hinges on competitiveness. I delivered a speech on the ministr y’s point of view in this regard. [48]
A Lasting and Sustainable Development The ministry’s efforts to achieve its goals and programs were the first step towards building a firm base for further development. At this time, we focused more on coming up with strategies and building the necessary framework for lasting and sustainable development than on any immediate or piecemeal changes. To be sure, this process takes time and the results of the changes we made will not manifest in a few years. However, they will be more impactful and beneficial if we implement, stick to, and commit to the right strategies and follow up on the initiatives that we set out regardless of any changes to the Ministry’s management and leaderships. Some of these initiatives inclu de the Education Strategy, the Public-Private Partnerships Strategy, and the School Sports Program, among others. [49] While serving as the Minister of Education, I was fortunate to have met and learned from the experiences of a wide range of people, especially those who have made a major impact on the younger generations. One day at the ministry, one of my colleagues requested that I set a time to meet Eric Schmidt, then the CEO of Google. Schmidt and his daughter were going to be in Riyadh for a short visit. I welcomed the idea. When we met, I was joined by my daughter Sama, Dr. Khalid Al Sabti, and Abdulrahman Trabzouni. I knew that Schmidt wanted to learn about our approach to education, so I began by explaining that Saudi Arabia has a culture that dates back over seven millennia and was at the crossroads of two major trade routes: the Silk Road going east and the Arabia Felix going west. These trade routes had a major influence on cultural and social aspects in the Arabian Peninsula. Describing Arabi a’s centralit y to the birth of Islam nearly 1,400 years ago, I explained that since that time, it has borne the responsibility of spreading this divine message to the world. Indeed, Islam influenced the Western world in the Middle Ages, the development of modern science, and the Industrial Revolution. I added: “And then Allah bestowed us with huge oil resources deep below the ground on which we stand. This has pushed our forgotten desert to the center of the modern world, particularly since the 1970s when we showed the world the true power of the oil economy. In the beginning, we invested our wealth in oil-dependent industries. Just look at the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu project, which is on par with the world’s largest petrochemical projects. It also builds up our capabilities and boost investments i n our own people to create a sustainable wealth.”
“Today we live in the fourth industrial revolution, the roots of which began in the 1970s. Technology has turned the world into a small village, making us here learn from the Silicon Valley, since
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