“The impact on jobs of the declines in non-oil gross domestic product has been smaller than anticipated. Travel restrictions and the use of furlough or unpaid leave have weakened the link between expats losing their jobs and returning to their home country.”
–Scott Livermore, chief economist for the Gulf region for Oxford Economics, writing in a report Wednesday that the expat exodus from the region might not be as significant as previously thought. [Bloomberg]
“The gaps between Qatar and Saudi Arabia have always been easier than those which existed between Qatar and UAE. With the added pressure of poor economic performance and concerted U.S. pressure this has brought the sides closer. But the gaps are still larger and the trust is low. This will take some time.”
-Michael Stephens, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, in comments discussing the ongoing talks between Saudi Arabia and Qatar to end their diplomatic rift amid reports that the two sides are seeing progress. [CNBC]
“Dealing with the birds, it is not easy … they are sensitive and need special treatment…Falconry has been a well-known heritage since ancient times. We take pride in it…With my participation … I proved I am here, that women can join this field, that it’s not only restricted to men.”
-Athari Alkhaldi, the first Saudi woman to qualify and participate in the Middle East’s top falconry show in Saudi Arabia, in comments about her historic participation, alongside her falcon, Ma’aned. [Reuters]
“To help supplement capacity for the rapid growth in customer demand, Amazon launched three new delivery stations through its subsidiaries and partners across Saudi Arabia, from Arar to Jazan and Makkah to Dammam. This expansion created more than 3,000 permanent and seasonal jobs, with more than 60 percent Saudization of Amazon’s permanent workforce.”
-Arab News, reporting that, since launching Amazon.sa six months ago, the company has invested primarily in job creation, delivery infrastructure and technology. [Arab News]
“As the world still reels from and continues to face the challenge of the pandemic we are initially very focused on domestic tourism. We passionately believe Diriyah is for everyone – local and international – and we want our residents to become our most loyal and vocal ambassadors, to reintroduce Saudi to the Saudis. Post-Covid we believe that the appeal for Saudi Arabia is vast. Again the access from Riyadh is key for Diriyah, meaning that both the leisure and business traveller transiting through and arriving into Riyadh is within easy distance to us and can visit as part of a wider multi-centre stay in the kingdom, a twin-centre with Riyadh or en route to other global destinations.”
-Jerry Inzerillo, CEO of Diriyah Gate Development Authority in Saudi Arabia, about how the kingdom intends to attract millions of tourists from around the world by 2030. [Globetrender]
“A third successive rise in the Saudi Arabia PMI pointed to an economy getting back on its feet in November…Employment started to rise, while business confidence strengthened in the wake of encouraging vaccine news and sharper demand growth. As a result, there was evidence of firms raising investment in anticipation of an uplift in 2021 should the pandemic come to an end.”
-David Owen, economist at IHS Markit, in comments on the pickup in Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy as the impact of the Coronavirus eases. [Reuters]
“Innovation in the private sector is what is going to clean up things and this is what is going on in Saudi Arabia…One man’s hazardous trash is another man’s treasure, and that’s the way that AMG looks at these catalysts.”
–Steve Hanke, chairman of AMG NV’s supervisory board and professor of applied economics at The Johns Hopkins University. Aramco has signed a memorandum of understanding with Shell & AMG Recycling BV, to conduct a study of the feasibility of developing a world-class vanadium recycling facility in Saudi Arabia. [Forbes]
“The name Aber was selected because, as the Arabic word, for “crossing boundaries”, it both captures the cross-border nature of the project as well as our hope that it would also cross boundaries in terms of the use of the technology.”
-Saudi and UAE Central Banks issued a report at the one-year mark of Project Aber, a joint effort to establish ‘proof of concept’ for implementation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) based on blockchain technology. The report concluded that a dual-issued CBDC was “not only technically viable” for cross border payments, but that CBDCs present “significant improvement over centralized payment systems in terms of architectural resilience.” [Cointelegraph]
“Think of the difference in versatility between dumb phones and smartphones. For the past two decades we have been consumed by preventing Iran’s big weapon, but it is the thousands of small smart weapons Iran has been proliferating that have become the real and immediate threat to its neighbors.’’
-Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, quoted in Thomas L. Friedman’s opinion article in the New York Times assessing how the Middle East threat environment has changed since Joe Biden served as Vice President. [New York Times]
“Boeing projects a 20-year opportunity for Middle East commercial services valued at $725 billion, including requirements for supply chain and maintenance, repair and overhaul capability focused on newer airplane technologies and software solutions to reduce operating costs and improve efficiency.”
-Boeing’s 2020 Commercial Market Outlook, which foresees 4.3% annual passenger growth over the next 20 years in the Middle East with the region’s commercial fleet expected to reach 3,500 by 2039 – more than doubling the current 1,510 airplanes. [Hotelier Middle East]
