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Recent stories from sustg

  • Sulaiman Al-Rajhi’s life a rags to riches story
     

    Al-Rajhi is a billionaire who chose last year to become a poor man at his own will without having any cash or real estates or stocks that he owned earlier. He became penniless after transferring all his assets among his children and set aside the rest for endowments. In recognition of his outstanding work to […]

     
  • How Oil Has Driven Global Conflict For The Past 100 Years
     

    Michael T. Klare recently gave a presentation titled “The Geopolitics of Oil: Old and New” at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil conference in Vienna, in which he speaks about how no other substance in the world is as closely aligned with geopolitics as oil is. Klare describes the geopolitics of oil — the intersection […]

     
  • Hoteliers Expand in Saudi Arabia as Mecca Goes Upscale
     

    “I wish I could have more hotels in Mecca,” said Jan Smits, InterContinental’s chief executive officer for Asia, Middle East and Africa. “In four months, you make 70 percent of your income. It’s a really strong market and it’s one of the most unique in the world.” The company has been in the country since […]

     
  • The problem with taxing foreign-earned income
     

    Eritrea is one of only two countries in the world that applies citizenship-based taxation in addition to residence-based taxation.  The other? The United States of America. In fact, the US is the ONLY industrialized country in the world to impose citizenship-based taxation. The immediate result for American expatriates is a blizzard of confusing and complex […]

     
  • Saudis allow women to compete
     

    Saudi Arabia is to allow its women athletes to compete in the Olympics for the first time. Officials say the country’s Olympic Committee will “oversee participation of women athletes who can qualify”. The decision will end recent speculation as to whether the entire Saudi team could have been disqualified on grounds of gender discrimination.

     
  • Education, Women’s Empowerment and Change
     

    There has been a significant investment in education, which is great. In the last eight or nine years the number of Saudi Universities has more than quadrupled from about seven to over 30. Some of that increase has been through splitting up existing, very large universities, like King Abdul Aziz University, into more manageable sizes. […]

     
  • Saudi car sector to accelerate
     

    Strong fundamentals coupled with a rapidly growing young population made Saudi Arabia the largest importer of vehicles and automotive parts in the Middle East in 2011, with the pace seen accelerating in the medium term, the National Commercial Bank said in its report on the Kingdom’s automotive sector released Wednesday. It noted that rising income […]

     
  • The Importance of Economic Diversification for Saudi Arabia
     

    In a clear break from past trends, Saudi Arabia’s private sector is growing. This trend can be in part explained by the increase in bank lending to private sector. In year-on-year terms, lending growth was at its highest since March 2009. More specifically, bank lending to private sector rose by 1.1 percent in April to […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia names Defense Minister Prince Salman new heir to throne
     

    Saudi Arabia’s ruler named Defense Minister Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz is the country’s new crown prince Monday — an expected nod that leaves power still within an aging and shrinking circle of leaders in one of the West’s most critical Middle East allies.

     
  • Saudi Arabia mourns death of Crown Prince Naif
     

    The funeral prayers for the Saudi Crown Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz will be held at the Haram Mosque in Makkah following the Maghreb prayer today. The body will then be buried at the graveyard in the holy city. Muslim leaders from across the world started arriving in Jeddah on their way to Makkah to […]

     

MUST-READS

  • Al-Jadaan: Saudi Arabia is approaching goals of Vision 2030 in job creation

    “Our non-oil revenues exceeded our expectations. We aim to increase the role of the private sector in the employment process,” he said while noting that the Kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) has increased by more than 15 percent since the launch of Vision 2030. Al-Jadaan said that the global economy faces serious challenges. He noted that spending at a time of global inflation results in increased costs of projects, saying that this further fuels inflation and overheats the economy. The minister said that Saudi Arabia is in a position to reshape the Gulf region’s overall economy.

  • Al-Khateeb: Saudi Arabia has become a global hub for innovations with SR800 billion investments

    Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb said that Saudi Arabia has become a hub for innovations around the world with investments reaching SR800 billion. In his speech at the inaugural session of the GREAT FUTURES initiative conference at King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh on Tuesday, he said that the Kingdom has witnessed a robust growth with regard to the issuance of tourist licenses by about 90 percent. “This vital sector contributes 5 percent of the gross domestic product,” he said. GREAT FUTURES is one of the initiatives of the Saudi-UK Strategic Partnership Council, co-chaired by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

  • Commentary: Divergent Saudi-Emirati Agendas Cripple Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council

    The PLC was established in April 2022 with a dual mandate: to lead the internationally recognized government of Yemen and to unify anti-Houthi factions against their common adversary. The eight-member council is chaired by former interior minister and deputy prime minister Rashad al-Alimi. The UAE and  KSA are the PLC’s main backers, but their different agendas and approaches constrain the council’s operations.

  • Saudi FM: Israel’s war on Gaza has weakened credibility of international bodies

    Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that the Israeli occupation forces’ ongoing aggression and violation of all international laws and norms in the Gaza Strip has exacerbated the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe and weakened the credibility of the rules of the international law and its institutions.

    He made the remarks while chairing the meeting of the Arab foreign ministers, preparatory for the 33rd Summit of the Arab League, which will be held in Manama, Bahrain on Thursday.

  • Bahrain signals willingness to join Arab multinational force in Gaza, US official says

    Bahrain has signalled its willingness to be a member of an Arab multinational force that would administer security in Gaza once Israel ends its war on the embattled enclave, a US official familiar with the Biden administration's plans for the region has told Middle East Eye. US officials have made several overtures in recent weeks to see if Bahrain would be a member of the force that will fill the security vacuum in Gaza until a Palestinian governing authority can be formed, the US official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media. Manama has said it wants to take a bigger role in post-war Gaza's governance, pointing to its position as the fourth country to normalise ties with Israel in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords agreements, the official said.

  • Nadhmi Al-Nasr: 140,000 workers involved in NEOM projects around the clock

    NEOM CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr said that about 140,000 workers are involved in implementing various projects on the NEOM giga city site around the clock.

     Addressing the GREAT FUTURES initiative conference at King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh on Tuesday, Al-Nasr expected that the number of project workers would rise to 200,000 by 2025. “We have about 5,000 full-time employees from more than 100 countries,” the NEOM chief said.

  • Saudi Arabia approves new tax scheme at arrivals duty-free stores

    In big breaking news for the fast-growing Saudi travel retail industry, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) has approved a tax scheme that allows travellers to be exempted from customs duties and taxes when purchasing at duty-free arrivals stores at all land, sea and air customs points in the Kingdom.

  • Saudi Arabia issues royal decrees

    Saudi Arabia issued various royal decrees on Wednesday. They are as follows: Prince Abdulaziz bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf Al-Muqrin was appointed special adviser to King Salman at the rank of minister. He is also responsible for carrying out the work of deputy minister of the National Guard. Abdul Mohsen bin Abdulaziz Al-Tuwaijri was relieved of his position as deputy minister of the National Guard and appointed as an adviser to the Royal Court at the rank of minister.

  • Saudi’s new mining vehicle picks industry veteran as first CEO

    Saudi Arabia’s Manara Minerals Investment Co. hired veteran dealmaker Pierre Chenard to be its first permanent chief executive officer, as the mining investment firm searches for more assets.

    Manara, backed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, is spearheading the kingdom’s ambitious plan to become a major player in metals and mining. The vehicle has been tasked with snapping up stakes in mines overseas and funneling the raw materials back to Saudi Arabia for processing.

  • How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Houthis?

    The last seven months have made two things clear. First, the Houthi threat to commercial shipping and freedom of navigation is not going to disappear. This will remain true whether there is a cease-fire in Gaza or not – the genie is out of the bottle, and it will be very hard to contain it. Second, the United States does not have a good toolbox to counter the Houthi threat. As Haines told Congress, U.S. actions have “been insufficient to really stop the Houthis from going down this road.” All of this raises the key question: How can the United States deal with a long-term and enduring challenge like Houthi attacks on commercial shipping?