British Embassy, UNCLASSIFIED JEDDA. August 10, 1963. I see on going through our file that it is over a month since I last reported to you on the state of the Saudi roads development programme (my letter of July 8 under this reference, copied only to Gunn). 2. I have just returned from a further visit to Riyadh. I found that the consultants proposals which had been submitted on July 13 as arranged were still under examination by a five-man committee appointed by the Minister of Communications for the purpose. The trouble is that all the members of the committee are key men and are so busy on other jobs that it is apparently proving difficult to get them all around a table at the same time. The committee are however certainly doing their best to make their minds up, and there should be some news of firm appointments in a week or two. You may care to let Bolton Hennessy know about this. As you will recall, they were the only United Kingdom firm able to submit proposals in time, The other British firm invited to bid, Scott Wilson and Kirkpatrick, dropped out. 3. Mr. Harola Folk, the chief adviser on development to the Saudi Government, told me that the Ministry of Communications would be calling for bids from contractors as the consulting firms completed their engineering work on each major sector of their respective areas. If all goes well, Folk hopes that the Ministry of Communications will be ready to invite the first contracting tenders by the middle of next year. 4. Mr. Nizar Kurdi, one of the senior Saudi engineers in the Roads Department of the Ministry of Communications, told me that the Department anticipate being allocated approximately £115 million over the next five years. 01 this, 680 million is to be spent on the building of paved roads, 88.5 million on engineering services, $5 million on unmetalled rural roads, $5 million on road maintenance, $1 million on a central engineering shop in Riyadh with a branch in Jedda, and £15 million on such further items as administöative overheads. 5. The Ministry of Communications plan to undertake the rural roads programme on their own, i.e. rather than by calling in outside consultants. They are at present making / somewhat A.K. Rogora, Esq. Export Services Branch, Board of Trade, Hillgate House, 35, 01a Bailey, LONDON, E.C.4.
