Praise belongs to Allah alone; peace and blessing on the last Prophet, his family and his Companions,
The establishment of a center specialized in local administration allows, for the first time, to benefit from local national experience, documenting, shaping, and coordinating efforts between interested and specialists, and working on building local capacities. Therefore, the presence of the Center for Local Governance is undoubtedly represents an important event in the field of local Governance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, especially as the center bears the name of King Salman bin Abdulaziz “the pioneer of local governance in Saudi Arabia”.
The establishment of the King Salman Center for Local Governance adds a clear indication to adopt King Salman's administrative thinking, his experience in leadership, decision-making and public policy.
King Salman's practices during his governorship of Riyadh, which showed his professional leadership and expertise is going to be the basis and the guidance that will help us to establish local urban governance.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 has put forward a different development approach, making it necessary to contribute to building our cities through the implementation of a governance style capable of overcoming challenges. It is extremely important for our cities to play their expected role in developing their services, expanding them quantitatively and qualitatively in line with the objectives of the national vision. There is a need for serious thinking regarding Municipal affairs and city management, way from the effects of the current traditional municipal work. Restructuring the institutional structure of municipalities has become both a necessity and a challenge.
The idea of establishing the Center for Local Administration was to contribute to cooperation, coordination, exchange of experience and development of performance, as well as representation of Saudi Arabia in international forums related to local administration so that the Center would be able to meet the actual needs of the local administration system.
Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed bin Ayaf
Vice President of Riyadh Charitable Foundation for Science
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prince Sultan University
Chairman of the Center