MUST-READS

• Vision 2030: What are Saudi Arabia’s overarching goals?

  The first goal of Vision 2030 is to cultivate a content and fulfilled society, laying the foundation for the attainment of economic prosperity.

  According to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 official website, the goal focuses on creating strong roots that embrace modern Islam, national pride and Saudi heritage and culture, while also providing world-class entertainment options, sustainable living, and efficient health and social care systems.

• Saudi Arabia sees 16% increase in net direct foreign investment

  During a meeting of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA), the Ministry of Economy and Planning reported a notable 16% increase in net direct foreign investment inflows for the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter.

• State Department OKs Saudi Arabia’s $250M Blanket Order Training Support FMS Request

  Under the proposed transaction, the U.S. Navy will also provide professional military education support for Saudi Arabia’s naval forces, which will not require the deployment of any additional U.S. government and contractor personnel to the Middle Eastern country.

• Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 Is Too Expensive For Tourists – And Everyone Knows It

  Between now and the end of the decade, 320,000 new hotel rooms are expected to open in Saudi Arabia. According to Knight Frank, 82% of those new rooms are in the luxury and upscale segments. And 66% of Saudi’s current 149,400 rooms are also upscale and luxury.

• Can Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 still succeed?

  “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who believed it would be built as conceived, Saudis included,” Jim Krane, energy research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, told The New Arab.

  “Erecting a 100-mile-long skyscraper in the middle of nowhere is not a great use of scarce resources.”

• Saudi tourism sector booming, IHG currently builds 39 hotels: CEO

  The Saudi tourism sector is seeing continuous growth. The Ministry of Tourism has managed to surpass the target number of visitors, in addition to the rise in occupancy rates and increased demand from tourists and businessmen to the Kingdom, Haitham Mattar, CEO of IHG Hotels & Resorts in the India, Middle East, and Africa region, said that the tourism sector, said.

• Saudis push for ‘plan B’ that excludes Israel from key deal with US

  The US and Saudi Arabia have drafted a set of agreements on security and technology-sharing which were intended to be linked to a broader Middle East settlement involving Israel and the Palestinians.

  However, in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza and in the face of adamant resistance from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government to the creation of a Palestinian state – and its apparent determination to launch an offensive on Rafah – the Saudis are pushing for a more modest plan B, which excludes the Israelis.

• Hans Grundberg: Mediation in Yemen

  Well, there's nothing that says that the United Nations has a monopoly on mediation, but there is an advantage of having the United Nations as the mediator. The reason is that you get some long-term approach from the United Nations. You get an organization that will engage on a certain conflict with a long-term vision in mind. That won't change depending on the situation in the world. But also, the additional value that you have using the United Nations as a mediating entity is the fact that it's the only universal intergovernmental organization there is. With that comes a certain relative impartiality. I say “relative” because impartiality will always be contested, but you will not find a party that is more impartial than the United Nations. When I mediate, I represent the global community.

• U.S. urges Hamas to take ceasefire deal as Blinken lands in Israel

  The White House urged Hamas and its interlocutors to accept a “fresh” proposal that would in its first phase free three dozen vulnerable hostages during a 40 day Gaza ceasefire, and said the United States would serve as one of the guarantors of the deal. “This is a…really good proposal and Hamas ought to jump at it,” National Security Council spokesperson John  Kirby told reporters on a zoom today (April 30). “And time is of the essence.” “Our focus right now is on getting a ceasefire and hostages home,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Amman, Jordan, today before flying to Israel. “That is the most urgent thing, and it’s also I think what is achievable.”

• Mosaic sells Saudi JV stake to Ma’aden in $1.5 billion deal

  US fertilizer company Mosaic (NYSE: MOS) is selling its 25% stake in an $8 billion Saudi Arabian phosphate production joint venture to the country’s flagship miner Ma’aden, in a stock deal worth about $1.5 billion.

  
  Ma’aden, which already holds 60% of Ma’aden Wa’ad Al Shamal Phosphate Co. (MWSPC), will issue about 111 million shares to buy Mosaic’s stake in the venture, a partnership that also includes Saudi Basic Industries Corp, with a 15% interest.

• 10 of 60970 results<< 1 … 336 337 338 … 6,097 >>