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  • The Saudis on the ‘Arabian Business’ Power 500 List
     

    The ArabianBusiness.com ‘World’s 500 Most Influential Arabs’ list for 2013 was released this week with the revelation that Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal had topped the list for the 9th consecutive year. Although an impressive feat, there are 31 other Saudis on the list doing some amazing things in business, culture, the media and […]

     
  • 17-day long Janadriyah festival for Saudi Heritage and Culture to begin April 3
     

    The 28th National Festival for Heritage and Culture at Al-Janadriyah showcasing the cultures and traditions of Saudi Arabia will open Wednesday, April 3, the Saudi Gazette reports. The festival is a display of Saudi culture and tradition. China is a guest country at the celebration, and will have a pavilion that is 2.000 sq. meters “at the […]

     
  • Twitter Use Booms in Saudi Arabia: Infographic
     

    Bit.ly, a link-tracking service company, published a comprehensive look at global social media use, which found that Saudi Arabia is rapidly embracing Twitter. “In this country, most of the social sharing happens on facebook and twitter, but what about in the rest of the world?” bit.ly asks on its company blog. The findings detail the number of […]

     
  • Unusual Video Footage Shows Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mosque Under Construction
     

    Amazing footage of the ongoing construction at Mecca’s Grand Mosque surfaced on Facebook, showing the large-scale reconstructive efforts at the holy site in Saudi Arabia. The video, shot from what looks like a crane, shows worshippers circling the Kaaba with construction efforts ongoing at the mataf expansion not far away. The amateur footage shows the […]

     
  • We’re here, can we come in? TASI and foreign investors
     

    The figurative lobby to the Tadawul All Shares Index (TASI), Saudi Arabia’s stock market, is filling up with eager investors.  Intrigued by the $387 billion Saudi stock market (three times the UAE bourses combined) and the $727 billion Saudi economy, many of them think… Brazil; whose fully accessible stock market’s capitalization exceeds $1 trillion. While […]

     
  • First of 84 new Boeing F-15SAs bound for Saudi Arabia Tested as U.S.-Saudi Military Relations Remain Active
     

    UPI.com reports that the first new Boeing F-15SA completed a successful test flight last month in the United States. The report quotes Lt. Gen. C. D. Moore II, the commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, who said, “The successful first flight of the F-15SA is a tremendous milestone for the program and […]

     
  • Lockheed Nets $253 Million Training Contract
     

    US-based Lockheed Martin will provide Virtual Training Technologies in support of Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA Modernization Program. The news comes on the heels of a recent announcement that the company had set up a branch in Riyadh on February 8th.  — According to a Press Release, Lockheed Martin, the Bethesda, Maryland-based aerospace company, has received a contract […]

     
  • Women Transforming the Middle East
     

    In this thoughtful interview with SUSRIS, Dr. Isobel Coleman, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow, characterizes King Abdullah as a ‘committed incrementalist.’ An accurate description based on his steady push of reforms that are meaningful but are not, as some critics point out, decisive. Why doesn’t the King just declare that it is legal for […]

     
  • Al-Assaf, Al-Rabiah Headline Important Private Sector Initiative in Riyadh
     

    The high-level meeting, an ambitious private sector initiative, addressed joint Arab action agendas, with 21 proposals of developmental projects discussed. Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf and Commerce Minister Tawfig Al Rabiah headlined this important event in Riyadh, which was widely discussed on Social Media sites and in the general media.

     
  • Nitaqat: Towards a Saudi “New Deal?”
     

    Editor’s Note: ‘Saudization’ is a topic that has garnered a great deal of front-page ink in Saudi Arabia of late.  The Nitaqat (“Ranges”) Program introduced in 2011 has staunch advocates and detractors and the ongoing argument between members of the private sector and the Ministry of Labor over recent fee hikes for foreign employees has been […]

     

MUST-READS

  • How will Pakistan’s new PM approach Gulf Arab states, Iran?

    Sharif has entered office on shaky political ground and his tenure may be short-lived. He is set to serve as prime minister until the next general elections, which are expected to take place next year. However, the polls may be brought forward in the face of a popular uprising led by Khan, who is demanding early elections. Of note, a Gallup opinion survey conducted on Apr. 10-11 found that over two-thirds Pakistanis want early polls.

  • Saudi-backed golf series: Can the LIV Golf Invitational Series still become a dominant force in golf?

    "The most overlooked thing with the Saudi Tour at the minute is that everybody is focusing on the players of today and nobody is thinking of the players of tomorrow," Southgate told the Sky Sports Golf podcast. "Five years ago, we didn't know Bob MacIntyre, we didn't know Scottie Scheffler, we don't know Viktor Hovland or either of the Hojgaard brothers. When you start going through the list of players who weren't on Tour five years ago, it's quite significant.

  • Best Places for Digital Nomads? Lisbon, Miami Attract High Earning Executives

    Dubai, which is a well-established expat hub, also scored highly alongside Barbados, Barcelona and Dubrovnik. There were no Asian cities included in the rankings.

  • How will the UAE’s new venture capital fund help overcome obstacles in the nation’s startup sector?

    Approved on Thursday by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, the fund is expected to bolster and sustain startup projects and entrepreneurs in the emirate.

  • What is happening to Indian shipments to Russia?

    India dispatches goods worth about $4-4.5 billion annually to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations—Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Of this, Russia alone accounted for $2.85 billion until January this year, and Ukraine for $427 million.

  • With Us or With Them? In a New Cold War, How About Neither

    Governments representing more than half of humanity have refused to take a side, avoiding the binary accounting of us-versus-them that characterized most of the post-World War II era. In a United Nations General Assembly vote this month to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council, dozens of countries abstained, including Thailand, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and Singapore. (The resolution succeeded anyway.)

  • Where Do Things Stand With the Iran Nuclear Talks?

    Earlier this year, after months of negotiations, the US and Iran appeared to be closing in on an agreement to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. However, it subsequently became clear that the two sides remained divided over several critical issues, causing the earlier sense of optimism to evaporate. As things stand today, there's little visibility into when a deal might be reached — or indeed whether an agreement will be possible at all. Below, Energy Intelligence looks into some of the key questions surrounding the talks.

  • Why are so many people catching COVID again?

    If you've had COVID in the past few months, it's likely to have been a version of Omicron, which in turn should give you good protection against a second bout. The data we have so far suggest that a second Omicron infection is "rare, but can occur". More reinfections have been seen among younger people and those who haven't been vaccinated. About 4.5 million people have had a COVID booster dose since the start of the year, with another two million getting their second dose.

  • Why aren’t US oil producers drilling more as prices rise?

    Oil prices have now risen to $104 a barrel. But investments in producing more, as measured by the number of oil rigs actively drilling for oil and gas, have barely responded. Since oil prices bottomed out in the middle of 2020, they have nearly doubled, but the number of new rigs counted by drilling service company Baker Hughes has increased just 13%.

  • What is holding back Qatar’s startup ecosystem?

    This roadmap highlights entrepreneurship as a key pillar of Qatar’s knowledge economy. The government has already executed several projects and initiatives to ease the establishment of startups including two free zones regulated and run by the Qatar Free Zone Authority (QFZA), the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), a technology development hub, and the Qatar Fintech Hub (QFTH), a fintech incubator and accelerator.