The National Development Fund (NDF) is the fund responsible for boosting the performance of development funds and banks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to achieve development priorities and meet the economic needs under the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. Its tasks encompass adopting the mandates of development funds and banks, as well as their strategies, regulations, structures, executive plans, and applicable funding and loan mechanisms.
NDF was established on October 3, 2017. It manages its business from its headquarters in the capital, Riyadh. Its board of directors is chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz, crown prince and prime minister. The board is deemed as the authority responsible for elaborating the general policy of the fund.
NDF has a legal personality and enjoys complete administrative autonomy. It has an independent annual budget, set in accordance with the arrangements for issuing the general budget of the state. It is organizationally affiliated with the prime minister.
Importance of the NDF
NDF aims to optimize development impact and productivity in the Kingdom through the transformation into a comprehensive development financing services institution offering a range of funding solutions focused on the private sector. It supports economic development and fosters cooperation among its affiliated entities through multi-sector partnerships and joint services. Furthermore, it applies the best international practices by offering strategic advice and engaging in global supervision to support sustainable growth and economic diversification. NDF also ensures the continuous enhancement of productivity by guaranteeing the efficiency and effectiveness of programs, projects, and initiatives. NDF represents the Kingdom in regional and international organizations, authorities, events, and conferences whose work aligns with the fund's mandate.
NDF objectives
NDF works on fostering the financial performance, efficiency, and sustainability of its affiliated development funds and banks. It seeks to ensure alignment with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030, reduce overlaps between development entities, and enable funds to achieve their objectives while ensuring coordination between them. The fund assumes a regulatory, supervisory, and executive overseeing role over development funds and banks. It determines the measures aimed at fostering the sufficiency of development funding and loans and ensuring their sustainability within development funds and banks. NDF monitors the mandates, strategies, regulations, structures, and executive plans of development funds and banks, as well as funding and loan mechanisms applicable to development funds and banks, updating them to meet development priorities and requirements.
NDF's link with Saudi Vision 2030
NDF fosters the correlative relationship between Saudi Vision 2030 and its affiliated development funds and banks. It seeks to enhance their efficiency, effectiveness, and financial sustainability for promoting development and supporting the targets of the vision. Saudi Vision 2030 aims at instilling the fundamentals of a vibrant society, a thriving economy, and an ambitious nation. In terms of the importance of economic diversification, the vision focused on fostering non-oil gross domestic product (GDP) and raising the contribution of the private sector to the economy.
NDF's affiliated development funds and banks
NDF's funding ecosystem encompasses many key entities, including sector-specific entities, such as the Real Estate Development Fund, the Agricultural Development Fund, the Cultural Development Fund, the Tourism Development Fund, and the Saudi Industrial Development Fund. It also encompasses beneficiary-specific entities, such as the Social Development Bank and the Small and Medium Enterprise Bank, as well as activity-specific entities, such as the National Infrastructure Fund, the Saudi Fund for Development, the Human Resources Development Fund, the Events Investment Fund, and the Saudi Export-Import Bank.
These funds serve the agriculture, education, construction, real estate, culture, transportation and storage, technology and communications, defense, health, energy, tourism, and industry sectors.
NDF strategy
His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz, crown prince, prime minister, and chairman of the Board of Directors of NDF, launched NDF's strategy on March 14, 2022. The strategy aims to turn the fund into a pivotal enabler for the economic and social objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 by addressing current development challenges in line with the best global practices.
NDF strategy rests upon five pillars, being:
- Coordinating development support through activating the development targets of the Kingdom by achieving development and funding savings for NDF's beneficiaries through its affiliated entities.
- Ensuring the sustainability of NDF to enable its affiliated entities to achieve a sustainable business model and portfolio, thus ensuring long-term development funding.
- Facilitating funding and the participation of the private sector, enabling the latter to foster its role in terms of development funding, and leveraging commercial and operational alignment and integration to better cater to beneficiaries.
- Fostering the impact and efficiency of the ecosystem and activating initiatives related to enhancing performance, transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness.
- Developing first-grade institutional capacities for fostering the required internal capacities to achieve NDF's aspirations and targets.
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