MUST-READS

• Russia, Saudi to continue OPEC+ cooperation
  Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman yesterday expressed their willingness to continue developing friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries and coordination in OPEC+.
  The Kremlin said in a statement: “The two sides expressed their willingness to further develop friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The effectiveness of coordination between the two countries in OPEC+ was specifically emphasised.”

• Saudi Arabia: Enhanced IP Landscape with New Designs Law

  The amendments to Saudi Arabia’s intellectual property law are reflective of a broader strategic intent to cultivate an innovation-driven economy, aligning with Vision 2030 objectives. By extending the protection period and integrating with international standards, Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a competitive jurisdiction for intellectual property within the global landscape. For businesses and IP professionals, these changes necessitate a reevaluation of intellectual property strategies, particularly in terms of portfolio management, international filings, and the financial planning of annuities. The extended protection period, in particular, offers a new dynamic in the calculation of the lifecycle value of designs, potentially altering investment and development strategies.

• LME plans to list Saudi port as a copper and zinc delivery point
  The London Metal Exchange (LME) plans to list Jeddah, a Saudi Arabian Red Sea port city, as a new delivery point for copper and zinc subject to consultation on a technical change to the LME's warehouse location framework, it said on Tuesday.
  The warehouses, registered with the LME, the world's largest and oldest metals trading venue, are usually located in areas of net metals consumption or top transit hubs such as Rotterdam.

• Saudi Aramco CEO says no peak in oil demand for some time to come

  Oil demand will reach a new record of 104 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2024, Nasser said. Despite growing investment, alternative energy has yet to displace hydrocarbons at scale, Nasser said. “All this strengthens the view that peak oil and gas is unlikely for some time to come, let alone 2030,” he said. Rising demand from developing economies could feed oil demand growth through 2045, he said.

• Oil Markets Steady Despite Growing Insecurity in the Middle East

  The oil market has been relatively stable despite the geopolitical storm in the Middle East engendered by the war in Gaza and the disruption of maritime traffic in the Red Sea by the Houthis in Yemen. Oil prices have traded either side of $80 per barrel even since a number of OPEC+ plus producers, led by Saudi Arabia, said in early March that they would extend oil production cuts totaling 2.2 million barrels per day until midyear.

• Biden asks Israel PM to send team to discuss alternatives to Rafah invasion

  “Today, President Biden asked the Prime Minister to send a senior interagency team… to Washington in the coming days to hear U.S. concerns about Israel's current Rafah planning and to lay out an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt/Gaza border without a major ground invasion,” Sullivan told journalists at the White House briefing today (March 18), following the first Biden/Netanyahu call in a month.

• Foreign investors to be treated as Saudis under Nitaqat

  The Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has approved the classification of foreign investors (owners of private establishments) as Saudis under the Nitaqat Saudization program. This is one of the provisions for the classification of categories of people who will be treated equal to Saudis while calculating the percentage of Saudization, according to the Qiwa platform affiliated with the ministry, Okaz/Saudi Gazette has learnt.

• Saudis Tackle How to Pay for Vision 2030

  Saudi Arabia is embarking on an unrivaled spending spree on everything from mega projects to sports and technology in a bid to prepare for a post-oil future. It appears the country is only just getting started, with annual deployment of capital by the powerful sovereign wealth fund set to hit $70 billion a year from 2025. But even the giant petrostate has limits to what it can afford and that’s prompting the Public Investment Fund, the government and local banks to look for new ways to raise money.

• Feeding Gaza: Scenes from the desperate scramble to avert famine

  Food shortages in parts of the Gaza Strip have already far exceeded famine levels, and mass death is now imminent without an immediate ceasefire and surge of food into areas cut off by fighting, says the U.N.-backed IPC, the global hunger monitor that formally declares famines.

• How Saudi Arabia has become a global hub for manga and anime

  The announcement last Friday of the death of ‘Dragon Ball’ creator Akira Toriyama was met with sadness around the world, as fans of Japanese manga and anime were united in grief at the loss of a legend. In Saudi Arabia, the news was also keenly followed. Manga and anime have long been an important part of the social fabric of the Kingdom, with cartoons such as Captain Tsubasa (renamed Captain Majid in Arabic) winning the hearts and minds of people across multiple generations. With an estimated 13 million anime viewers in Saudi Arabia in 2022, and around 85 million across the Arab world, the medium’s popularity in the region is undeniable.

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