By Innovation-sa on November 14, 2018 in News
Custodian of the two Holy mosques King Salman launched more than 600 development projects worth SR16.5 billion in Qassim region in the presence of Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defence, and several princes, ministers and high-ranking officials on Wednesday.
King Salman initiated 402 projects worth SR12.15 billion falling in 12 diverse sectors and laid the foundation stone for another 199 projects worth SR4.2 billion at a function held at Al-Wadi Palace in Buraidah. These multibillion-riyal projects include several ministries and sectors in all cities, governorates and towns of Qassim region and highlights the continuation of the process of development and boom in all sectors in the Qassim region.
The development projects include municipal and rural projects, energy, industry and mineral resources projects, university, public education and technical and vocational training projects, agriculture, environment, water and transportation projects and housing, tourism and heritage projects.
Saudi Gazette
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/547475/SAUDI-ARABIA/King-launches-165bn-worth-of-projects
By Innovation-sa on November 14, 2018 in News
The labor market bulletin published by the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) stated that about 48,000 Saudi women entered the job market in the second quarter of 2018 marking an increase of 8.8 percent in comparison to the previous year.
The department of nationalization of jobs at the Ministry of Labor and Social Development is working tirelessly on developing remote employment centre to provide employment to more than 50,000 Saudi women job seekers.
The number of female workers in the Saudi private sector has crossed 9.37 million, which is 6.3 percent of the total workforce, as a result of several initiatives launched by the Ministry of Labor within the National Transition Program.
The ministry also held several meetings with 18 government and private companies including a number of international companies such as IBM and Huawei to generate more job opportunities for Saudi women in the IT, communications, engineering, commerce, tourism, transport, accounting, contracting, retail business, and renewable energy sector.
Saudi Gazette
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/547663/SAUDI-ARABIA/Women-employees-in-private-sector-up-88
By Innovation-sa on November 12, 2018 in News
Saudi Aramco and SABIC have announced Yanbu as the site for development of an integrated industrial complex to convert crude oil to chemicals (COTC), the first of its kind in the world.
The establishment of the complex will contribute to creating opportunities for setting up small and medium enterprises and factories and play a key role in national economic diversification as well as promote sustainable development, stated Prince Faisal bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Medina.
The complex, backed by equal investments from both companies, will create an estimated 30,000 direct and indirect jobs and eventually contribute to a GDP growth of 1.5 percent.
The COTC complex is expected to start operations in 2025 and will process 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day to produce approximately 9 million tonnes of chemicals and base oils annually.
The project will support the creation of a world-leading downstream sector in Saudi Arabia focussing on four key drivers – maximizing value from the Kingdom’s crude oil production via integration across the hydrocarbon chain, enabling the creation of conversion industries to produce semi-finished and finished goods to help diversify the economy, developing advanced technologies and innovation, and enabling sustainable development in alignment with the Kingdom’s National Transformation Program.
Asharq Al-Awsat – 6 November 2018
By Innovation-sa on November 12, 2018 in News
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman inaugurated a program to build the first nuclear research reactor in the Kingdom during a visit to King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The program is one among the seven strategic ventures launched by the Crown Prince in the fields of renewable energy, atomic energy, water desalination, genetic medicine and aircraft design.
Another major milestone reviewed at the KACST headquarters include the Center for development of aircraft structures, a 27,000 square meters area dedicated to developing civilian and military aircraft structures.
The Crown Prince also laid the foundation stone for a genome laboratory for tackling genetic disease in the Kingdom. The National Laboratory of the Saudi Human Genome contains the latest technologies in the study of genetic code, and 100,000 samples which are being examined to create a medical database.
The Crown Prince also reviewed two solar-powered water desalination plants, one in Al-Khafji and the other in Yanbu, as well as satellite projects, including SaudiSAt 5A and SaudiSat 5B.
KACST focusses on attracting investment and development in research with the coordination of national scientific, technological and innovative policies and strategies.
Saudi Gazette – 5 October 2018
By Innovation-sa on November 1, 2018 in News
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Justice Waleed Al-Sama’ani inaugurated the first labor courts in the Kingdom on Monday.
The specialized labor courts are a result of three years of continuous efforts by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development (MLSD) to increase transparency of the labor market and thereby boost investment and drive the economy towards development in line with the objectives of Vision 2030.
The minister said that all procedures at the new labor courts will be fully digitized to ensure speedy delivery of justice and better service to clients. He added that judges with diverse experiences were given sufficient training to handle labor cases.
Labor courts and panels started exercising their jurisdiction, as stipulated in the Civil Procedure Law, as of Monday, October 29, 2018.
The decision has also identified six minor types of cases that cannot be contested after a judgement has been issued by a first instance court. Cases with a financial claim less than SR20,000, claim of experience certificate, or worker’s documents kept by previous employer, and complaints against the decisions of the commissions on domestic employment fall in this category.
The Supreme Judicial Council also explained that cases registered at amicable settlement departments shall be referred to the labor courts and panels as soon as the courts began their works.
Moreover, competent departments shall continue to implement the decisions of commissions on labor dispute settlement regarding applications for enforcing the judgments of labor courts.
The labor courts will be connected to all government entities that deal with labor. The court will play a significant role in simplifying procedures and increasing the efficiency in conducting projects as well as ensuring employee’s security and protection at work.
Saudi Gazette – 30 October 2018
http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/546829/SAUDI-ARABIA/Labor-courts-start-functioning
By Innovation-sa on October 31, 2018 in News
Saudi Arabia, the largest and most populous Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country, has more than 5,200 construction projects worth $819 billion underway, according to latest reports from BNC Network.
These projects account for 35 percent of the total value of active projects across the GCC countries, according to The Big 5 Saudi, the Kingdom’s premier construction event.
The construction sector’s immediate outlook is extremely promising and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 along with significant investment in housing and infrastructure development promoted across the country by local authorities, are revitalizing the construction industry and generating interest in a growing number of international players, said Roni El Haddad, the event director of The Big 5 Saudi.
Moreover, a recent BMI Research forecasted that the Kingdom’s construction industry will expand by 6.13% every year from 2018 to 2022.
The report highlights the Kingdom’s urban construction sector, which is the largest contributor to the country’s construction sector, with 3,727 active projects worth over $386.4 billion. The King Abdullah Security Compounds (Phase Five) and the Grand Mosque Expansion, each worth $21.3 billion are some of the major urban construction projects in the Kingdom.
With 733 active projects valued at $95.6 billion, the utility sector is the second largest contributor to the construction sector followed by transportation sector with 500 projects worth $156.2 billion.
Asharq Al-Awsat – 29 October 2018
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1441941/5200-construction-projects-saudi-arabia-worth-819-bn
By Innovation-sa on October 31, 2018 in News
London-listed NMC Healthcare and Saudi Arabia’s Hassana Investment Company, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a network of medical facilities across the Kingdom.
The joint venture targets to become one of the largest private healthcare operators in the Kingdom with a total investment of $1.6 billion and aims to provide employment to over 10,000 staff in the next five years.
“The Saudi government’s forward-looking and investor friendly policies make the Kingdom one of the most attractive destinations in the region for investment in the healthcare sector,” said NMC CEO Prasanth Manghat.
“The partnership between Hassana and NMC Saudi Arabia has ambitious growth plans across different health care sub-sectors. Both sides are committed to provide the highest standards of health services and boost revenues,” said Saad bin Abdul Mohsen Al Fadhli, CEO of Hassana, the investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI).
The agreement is part of the “Invest in Saudi Arabia” initiative, launched within the National Transformation Program (NTP) 2020.
Arab News – 28 October 2018
By Innovation-sa on October 31, 2018 in News
NEOM, a mega investment and business special zone unveiled by Prince Muhammed last October at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference as part of plans to diversify the Kingdom’s oil dependent economy, has entered into its first phase of construction and works to develop the infrastructure of the first residential area at NEOM has already begun.
The proposed $500 billion NEOM will be the world’s first private zone to extend across three countries, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. The 26,500-square km mega city will offer an open platform for investing and financing and the zone will be designed to function independent of the Kingdom’s rules and regulations.
NEOM will house a network of airports including an international airport with world-class standards. The first airport in the zone is expected to be inaugurated before the end of 2018 and bi-weekly flights will begin operating from the start of 2019.
The project planners of NEOM is working hard to ensure that the newly created towns and cities will create new ways of living, economy, trade and innovation and has identified 16 economic sectors to create a sustainable economy which would generate an estimated annual income of $100 billion.
NEOM primarily focusses on redirecting the outflow of investments and spending back into Saudi Arabia, which would eventually have a positive impact on the Kingdom’s GDP growth.
Backed by the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), NEOM will also strive to become the most efficient destination in the world by ensuring cent percent automation of all services and operations. In future, robots will take over repetitive and laborious tasks.
Arab News – 26 October 2018
By Innovation-sa on October 25, 2018 in News
The first day of Future Investment Initiative (FII) saw Saudi Arabia sign at least 25 deals worth more than $50 billion, of which 12 were described as “mega deals”.
The investment conference, hosted under the leadership of Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman from October 23- 25 at Riyadh, struck major deals in oil, gas and infrastructure sectors including the second phase of Haramain high-speed railway, development of Saudi Land Bridge project,and a rail line connecting the Red Sea coast with Riyadh.
Backed by its sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Kingdom also entered into deals with global companies like commodities trading house Trafigura Group, French oil giant Total SA, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Norinco, Schlumberger, oil-service provider Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes. State owned oil giant Saudi Aramco signed 15 initial agreements worth $34 billion.
The business deals and projects come in line with the policies of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s ambitious reform plan to reduce the country’s dependence on oil and gas revenues and diversify its economy.
The conference also counted dignitaries such as Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman, Jordanian King Abdullah, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne, and PepsiCo Vice Chairman Mohmood Khan among dozens of other global representatives.
The event, that debuted in the Kingdom last year is a global platform focussing on identifying future trends and opportunities, defining the future of industries and discussing how investment can contribute to overall global prosperity and development.
Arab News– 23 October 2018
By Innovation-sa on October 25, 2018 in News
Saudi Arabia revealed plans to establish a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh to attract more foreign investment to the country, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
SEZ, the first of its kind in the world will focus on integrated logistics and will have its own set of simplified rules and regulations to attract multinational companies to the Kingdom.
A royal decree has already been issued to approve the regulations of the Integrated Logistics Bonded Zone (ILBZ) and the General Authority for Civil Aviation has been assigned its establishment and operation as the zone governing body.
The ILBZ is in line with the plans of Vision 2030 to bring in more foreign investment into various sectors in the Kingdom, such as ICT, tourism and financial services. This ILBZ concept and regulations were developed in close collaboration with prospect anchor tenants, reflecting the new way of doing business in Saudi Arabia, where the private sector, both local and international, are considered true partners in success.
Arab News– 22 October 2018