Saudi Arabia, which unveiled plans to launch a $400 billion development program, has ample funds for more investment spending over the next few years despite global financial turmoil, a central banker said on Sunday.

Muhammad Al-Jasser, the central bank's vice governor, said the kingdom's economy was well-protected from the "vagaries" of financial markets.

"We are receiving the winds flowing with contagion but we do not have the crisis that is swirling in Wall Street," the central banker said at a business forum in Dubai.

Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf said on Saturday in Washington that the kingdom planned to implement a $400 billion development and investment program in the oil and government sectors over the next five years.

The world's biggest oil exporter also rebuffed talk it would hand more cash to the International Monetary Fund, saying there needed to be equitable burden-sharing between all IMF member states.

In Dubai, Al-Jasser said potential investments would cover multiple sectors.

"We have enough in our war chest to deploy all of the necessary investment in infrastructure, youth, education, mining and petrochemicals," he said. "Our development budget is robust."    

The global financial crisis has prompted Gulf states, like the rest of the world, to enact a slew of policy measures to combat tight credit conditions and negative investor faith.

Saudi Arabia has cut interest rates, lowered bank reserve requirements, guaranteed bank deposits and poured billions in long-term deposits into the banking system.

The central bank vice governor said on Sunday that Gulf countries were working together to mitigate the effect of the crisis on the region, even if there were few public signs of such coordination.

He added that Saudi Arabia's $1.3 trillion in foreign reserves was in "very liquid, very safe, minimal risk" international assets. "Our bank exposure to international markets is extremely small," he added. - Reuters