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  • New Saudi Visa Program, Tourism Event Set for Launch on September 27th, Report Says
     

    A new visa scheme is coming to Saudi Arabia on September 27th that will benefit over 50 nations and will be a “game changer” initiative for attracting international tourists, a report in the English-language Saudi daily Arab News. “Although not officially confirmed by the government, industry sources told Arab News an event to showcase Saudi tourist attractions […]

     
  • Report: Saudi Aramco Considering Tokyo For International Listing
     

    Saudi Aramco is considering Tokyo as the international destination to list its shares, according to an exclusive report in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. Saudi Aramco is “considering a plan to split the world’s largest IPO into two stages, offering a portion of its shares on the Saudi stock exchange later this year and following up […]

     
  • Secretary Pompeo, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Meet in Washington
     

    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman met in Washington D.C. yesterday to discuss the ongoing war in Yemen and other U.S.-Saudi defense related topics. “On Yemen, the Secretary reiterated U.S. support for a negotiated resolution between the Republic of Yemen government and the Southern Transitional Council, and thanked […]

     
  • Almarai Company Solar Project Set to be Kingdom’s Largest, For Now
     

    Saudi Arabia food and beverage conglomerate Almarai has completed a solar project which is being billed as Saudi Arabia’s largest to date, according to a report. The 15MW Al Kharj Solar project, built at a cost of SAR44.4 million (around $12 million), will generate 28GWh of solar power every year, according to the company. Almarai said Al […]

     
  • Saudi Aramco Reports $47 Billion in Earnings; Plans to Buy Reliance Refining Stake
     

    In its first-ever half-year earnings report, Saudi Aramco said the company had earned a net income of $46.9 billion in the first half of 2019, a 12 percent decrease from $53 billion in the period a year earlier, when oil prices were higher. Saudi Aramco partly attributed the decline in net income to a 4% fall in the average […]

     
  • Senate Fails to Override Trump’s Veto of Saudi and UAE Defense Sale Bans
     

    The U.S. Senate failed to override President Donald Trump’s vetoes of legislation passed by Congress that would have blocked the sales of certain weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, meaning the transactions may proceed forward. Supporters of the ban won a voice vote of 45-40 in the Senate, roughly 21 votes short of […]

     
  • Trump Vetoes Three Bills Limiting U.S. Military Sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE
     

    President Trump vetoed three congressional resolutions aimed at blocking his administration from selling billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “This resolution would weaken America’s global competitiveness and damage the important relationships we share with our allies and partners,” the president said in a statement on Wednesday. The arms package included […]

     
  • Aramco Expats’ The Seven Wonders of Arabia, a Tribute to the Kingdom’s Remarkable Heritage Sites – Part 4: The Rock Art of the Ha’il Region
     

    Aramco Expats, an online blog that is a resource for current and former Saudi Aramco expatriates and their families, recently published a series of excellent blog posts on the seven wonders of the Arabia – the best heritage sites and historical places in the Kingdom. In the fourth installment of the series of seven, Aramco Expats chose the […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia approves new tendering and procurement law – report
     

    Saudi Arabia’s government has approved a law to improve the way it procures contracts and services “by saving money, making the process fairer, and boosting local bidders,” Reuters reports, citing information from the Ministry of Finance. The new Government Tendering and Procurement law is an “important measure” within Vision 2030 reforms as it helps to improve the […]

     
  • Dates Set for Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative 2019
     

    Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative (FII) will take place from 29-31 October in Riyadh, the event’s official Twitter page said in an announcement. Dubbed “Davos in the Desert,” the FII brings together world leaders, investors and innovators will explore the opportunities, trends, and challenges shaping the global investment landscape. Attendees will gather to “continue to discuss the […]

     

MUST-READS

  • Saudi Arabia Taps BlackRock to Build Mortgage-Backed Securities Market

    The country hopes developing a secondary market for mortgages would allow banks to offer borrowers lower interest rates and improve the cost of home ownership, BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said at a conference in Johannesburg. In August, BlackRock signed an agreement with Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company — the state-owned equivalent of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the US — to develop the real estate finance market in the kingdom. “Spreads are much wider than if there was a securitization market,” Fink said. “It would be much narrower and the homeowners would benefit, so the cost of home ownership would go down.”

  • The World’s Largest Building Is Coming to Saudi Arabia

    Located in northwest Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the forthcoming Mukaab skyscraper is just one component of a 19-square-kilometer project spearheaded by New Murabba and the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), according to the developers. Though far from the tallest building at a projected 1,312 feet upon completion, the structure is expected to handily take the title of the world’s largest by volume.

  • Saudi Finance Minister warns against rise in global fragmentation

    Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan on Monday offered a strong defence of multilateralism, warning of the challenges that global fragmentation poses to trade and humanitarian efforts. Mr Al Jadaan, who leads the International Monetary and Financial Committee, said countries have become increasingly isolated in recent years and that numerous shocks have weakened faith in multilateralism. “We can see that the world is becoming more and more fragmented,” Mr Al Jadaan said in remarks at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “It is more difficult to build consensus of digital security, trade, development and countless ambitions.”

  • Washington’s Arab allies engage with Iran as US efforts to stem Middle East violence falter

    In a rare meeting this month, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, who once called Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the “new Hitler of the Middle East,” sat down with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Riyadh. It was the third meeting between Iranian and Saudi officials in one month. Tehran’s top diplomat also met Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman and made a rare trip to Egypt for a meeting with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi in Cairo. He has also met Qatar’s prime minister in Doha, the Omani foreign minister in Muscat and the Bahraini king in Manama.

  • Meet Ali from Saudi Arabia, a Nursing Student at the University of South Carolina

    Ali from Saudi Arabia has been passionate about pursuing a career in nursing since middle school. He completed one year of his undergraduate education in Australia, then transferred through the International Accelerator Program (IAP) to the University of South Carolina (USC) to explore opportunities in the US.“The total nursing program is two years lower division [pre-nursing] and two years upper division,” Ali said. Lower division students take core general education classes including English, history, math, and basic sciences. The curriculum also includes courses in nursing that focus on health and wellness, the history of nursing, pathophysiology, and more. Once students complete the prescribed number of lower division courses, they can then apply to the upper division level.

  • Iranians debate leak of US docs on Israeli attack plans

    A fringe pro-Iranian channel on the messaging app Telegram has published highly classified US intelligence documents detailing how Israel is preparing for an attack on Iran. US media have confirmed the authenticity of the documents, but the source of the leak and the possible motives remain unclear. The reaction in Tehran has been muted. However, some speculate that the leak is deliberate and meant to delay or reduce the scale of Israel’s pledged response to Iran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.

  • Syria: Iran and Hezbollah’s Savior and Achilles’ Heel

    As the Netanyahu government engages in wars throughout the Middle East to degrade Iran and its allied militias, Biden administration officials are reportedly calling these military victories a “history-defining moment.” But is this moment history-defining in the way that White House officials seem to hope it is? Without a political solution that accommodates the millions yearning for peace and justice in the Middle East including Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians, it’s likely not. Israel’s tactical victories and Iran’s losses will be ephemeral.

  • In Photos: Novak Djokovic embraces Saudi culture during 6 Kings Slam exhibition in Riyadh

    The Serbian tennis star donned the traditional Saudi attire and was seen sitting on a carpet alongside sand dunes and mountains captured in the background in pictures posted on his Instagram page. Djokovic posted a series of images from his time in Riyadh with captions such as “Sand slam” and “Kingdom style.”

  • Construction starts on world’s largest building in Saudi Arabia

    Construction has begun on the 400-metre-high, cube-shaped Mukaab supertall skyscraper in Riyadh designed by AtkinsRéalis, which will be the world's largest building when it completes. Designed as the centrepiece of the 19-square-kilometre New Murabba development in northwest Riyadh, Mukaab is now officially under construction with excavations underway, according to its development company. The developer, named New Murabba Development Company and funded by Saudi Arabia's central Public Investment Fund (PIF), said groundworks at the site are now 86 per cent complete.

  • Cabinet hails inclusion of 11 states in Middle East Green Initiative

    The Cabinet, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, praised the inclusion of 11 new countries in the Middle East Green Initiative during its session in Riyadh today, Oct. 22, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The Cabinet expressed hope that more nations would join the initiative launched by the Crown Prince as a global model to achieve its ambitious environmental goal of combating climate change.