“Gamethon is part of the Gamers8 $15 million esports competition which has been running in Saudi Arabia from July 14. The Gamers8 is featuring a range of events including music, festivals, and a gaming summit held across six weeks at a purpose-built venue in Boulevard Riyadh City. Organized by the Saudi Esports Federation, Gamers8 features elite esports teams competing across six titles: Rocket League, Dota 2, Fortnite, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, and PUBG MOBILE. Gamers8 tournaments are broadcast live on the event channels in more than eight different languages.” ‘

Biggest global Gameathon’ kicks off in Saudi Arabia, with $500,00 prize pool [Al-Arabiya]

“It is fairly clear from the decisions that KSA is making about the capital allocation for renewable forms of energy that their feet are firmly planted in both camps. The higher price regime that has settled on the oil market since 2021 has provided the cash to fund the projects we have discussed, that will fuel the Saudi Vision 2030 initiative. At the same time, like their shale counterparts in the U.S., they are committed to an orderly development of their legacy oil reserves in a way that will preserve value as far into the future as possible. That’s just good stewardship.” 

-Saudi Aramco Is Taking A Page Out Of The U.S. Shale Playbook [Oilprice.com]

“Saudi Arabia is recovering strongly following a deep pandemic-induced recession. Liquidity and fiscal support, reform momentum under Vision 2030, and high oil prices and production helped the economy recover with a robust growth, contained inflation and a resilient financial sector. The receding effects of the pandemic, rising oil production/prices and a strengthening economy have improved the fiscal and external positions.” 

IMF Executive Board Concludes 2022 Article IV Consultation with Saudi Arabia [IMF]

“What could we do with Utah? We have a very similar footprint, as a nation that is desert-based. Utah has a very similar topography. Your natural resources match ours but your need to develop also matches ours. In that need to develop, we’re talking now to companies that do manufacturing and asking if they’d be interested in coming and partnering with the kingdom and setting up manufacturing. We’re talking about new forms of energy and new technology. We know that Utah has a thriving entrepreneurial environment and you are very welcoming to entrepreneurs. And we want to be, too.” 

-Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States,  commenting on her second visit to Utah since becoming ambassador. [Deseret News]

“If we want real peace to be achieved between Israel and Saudi Arabia, we need to build financial structures and trade platforms via third parties and countries that will allow the nations to get to know each other on a personal level and let the people see the benefits of business relationships and a true open peace.” 

-Bruce Gurfein, a Jewish-American entrepreneur who has lived in the Gulf for 25 years. On the Saudi road to Israel, orange and date groves point the way [The Circuit]

“Saudi Arabia is discussing a potentially significant order for wide-body jets, three industry sources said, though talks have fluctuated over several years without a deal being announced and the timing of a decision may be some way off.”

“UNESCO honored the Ḥimā Cultural Area in southwest Saudi Arabia for its rock carvings, which depicts plants and animals, as well as human activities, in its panoply of ancient art and writings. The site is located in a mountainous spot along an ancient caravan route. The artworks and inscriptions reflect the many cultures of those who traveled through the Arabian Peninsula over the millennia, with messages written in scripts including Musnad, Aramaic-Nabatean, South-Arabian, and Thamudic, as well as Greek and Arabic.”

New UNESCO World Heritage Sites Include Greek Inscriptions in Saudi Arabia [Greek Reporter]

“Yet while coffee was commercialized in Yemen in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Ottomans and the British, turning coffee trees into a business is new in Jazan, where production was for local consumption only. A handful of Arabica trees are still planted around each home here for personal use. ‘No one ever thought of commercializing it. It was simply daily life,’ says fellow coffee farmer Ahmed Bani Malik.”

-Their cup overflows: Why future is bright for Saudi coffee growers [Christian Science Monitor]

“A Visa study in collaboration with Saudi Payments found that contactless payments adoption in Saudi Arabia grew from 4 percent in 2017 to 94 percent at the end of 2020, placing [the Kingdom] first overall in MENA and globally above the EU average and ahead of Hong Kong and Canada. And this is no surprise given that nine out 10 transactions in Saudi are made with contactless cards or devices.”

-Ali Bailoun, Visa’s General Manager for GCC cluster Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman. [Al-Arabiya]

“The Salwa border crossing between Saudi Arabia and Qatar has been expanded by four times its previous capacity and now can accommodate 12,000 cars in each direction per day. The capacity of vehicles per day before the completion of the expansion works stood at 3,000.” 

Ahead of Qatar World Cup, expanded Salwa border crossing inaugurated [Saudi Gazette]