His Royal Highness Prince Badr bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Acting Emir of Makkah Province, at the seat of the government in the Holy Capital last Monday, witnessed the signing of the memoranda of understanding between the Emirate Agency for Hajj and Umrah Affairs, represented by Engineer Khaled Abu Naji, and the Universities of the Western Region, represented by His Excellency the President of Umm Al-Qura University, Prof. Abdullah bin Omar Bafail, His Excellency the President of King Abdul-Aziz University, Dr. Abdul-Rahman Al-Youbi, His Excellency the President of Jeddah University, Dr. Adnan Al-Humaidan, and His Excellency the President of Taif University, Dr. Saeed Al-Zahrani.

The signing of the memoranda of understanding comes in implementation of the directives of Prince Badr bin Sultan to involve the region’s universities in studies measuring the level of services provided to the guests of the Merciful during the Hajj and Umrah seasons. The signing of these memoranda was a result of the meeting chaired by His Highness last month to discuss the report prepared by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research at Umm Al-Qura University on the pilgrimage season last year, in the presence of the Dean of the Institute, Dr. Basim Qadi. During that meeting, there was a discussion on ways of measuring the satisfaction of a number of pilgrims with the services provided to them in various aspects, and ways to develop them.

The memoranda of understanding also included assigning the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research to enact the memoranda under the supervision of the region’s emirate, in order to take advantage of the scientific studies available at universities and research centers to measure the level of services provided to the guests of the Merciful. In addition, this agreement aims to provide the institute with previous studies and efforts of the universities related to measuring the level of services provided to the guests of the Merciful, and support it with specialized scientific and research cadres and the capabilities available at each university. The cooperation between the two parties will become effective through the setting up of executive programs and projects to achieve the set goals.