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  • Smart grids could improve Saudi Arabia’s renewables potential

    Saudi Arabia’s traditional power grid faces challenges such as transmission losses, low efficiency, and limited ability to accommodate renewable energy sources, creating the need for a modernized smart grid.

  • Top art exhibitions in the UAE and Saudi Arabia to see this spring

    As the calendar ticked over to 2024, art institutions in the Gulf began setting the stage for some of their best exhibitions of the year.

    The UAE will host Art Dubai and March Art Week, while Saudi Arabia has a growing fixture of events anchored by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation as well as exhibitions and biennials staged in AlUla.

  • Top art exhibitions in the UAE and Saudi Arabia to see this spring

    A mix of blockbuster shows and calmer retrospectives to catch in the coming months.

  • Schiattarella Associati’s digital art center in Saudi Arabia draws from Najdi architecture

    Schiattarella Associati has unveiled Diriyah Art Futures, a distinctive digital art ‘incubator’ in Saudi Arabia designed for exhibitions, education, and art production. Covering an area of 12,800 square meters, it is situated northwest of Riyadh, close to a significant historical and archaeological site in the Arabian Peninsula. The design approach of Schiattarella Associati emphasizes a connection with the surroundings, considering not only the physical characteristics of the context but also engaging with the cultural values and the memory of the location.

  • Setting the Stage: The Vital Role of Private Art Institutions in Saudi Arabia

    Yet amid the present moment of grandiose state patronage that has led to a renaissance of sorts across the kingdom, at times the role of private art institutions has been overlooked. Prior to the present massive government investment in culture, these institutions – independent players such as Edge of Arabia, Athr, Hafez Gallery, and Art Jameel – played a vital role in the development of the Saudi art scene during a time when the state was largely not present in Saudi cultural enterprise.

  • Saudi Arabia charts collaborative path at Davos in meeting with WEF Leaders

    The Saudi delegation to Davos, led by Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, convened with World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab and its President Borge Brende during their participation in the forum’s 2024 edition. In the discussion, strategies were evaluated to bolster collaboration between the Kingdom and the World Economic Forum, addressing immediate and future challenges in economic and human development, the Saudi foreign ministry said. Throughout the week, the Kingdom's delegation is set to engage in a number of high-level sessions and bilateral meetings.

  • US State Department Hails Saudi Arabia’s Efforts in Combating Terrorism

    The state Department praised the Kingdom's efforts to raise standards and measures using modern technologies and tools in the security field, especially in combating terrorism and its financing, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Wednesday. In its annual report on combating terrorism for 2022, the Department lauded the Kingdom for upgrading the security and international criteria for Saudi passports, adding that the new Saudi passport security features are comparable to the US' next-generation passport.

  • Germany approves missile export to Saudi Arabia in departure from previous policy

    Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit on Wednesday confirmed a report by news magazine Der Spiegel that Germany’s Security Council, made up of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and several other ministers, approved the export of 150 air-to-air missiles for the Iris-T air defense system at the end of 2023. The government of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel imposed a ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia following the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. It later made a conditional exception for systems developed jointly with other countries.

  • Saudi Arabia’s new regional headquarters regulation takes effect: What will be its impact?

    Saudi Arabia's regulation for foreign companies to set up regional headquarters in the kingdom will support the country's non-oil economy and improve job creation in the Arab world’s largest economy, according to analysts.

    The regulation, which requires firms to set up a local base in the kingdom or risk losing out on government contracts, came into effect on Monday.

    However, companies with foreign operations not exceeding 1 million Saudi riyals ($266,000) can operate in the kingdom without local headquarters.

    “We project robust non-oil growth of 5 per cent in 2024, the highest in the GCC, on a continued broad-based expansion of the non-oil economy,” Carla Slim, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank, told The National.

  • W.Media brings together DC Industry Stalwarts in Saudi Arabia

    Over 100 of the best and brightest of the Middle East's Cloud and Data Center industry came together at the Hyatt Regency, Riyadh Olaya in the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for W.Media's maiden edition of Saudi Cloud & Datacenter Convention on December 19. These included industry experts and thought leaders, including C-level executives, digital infrastructure professionals including architects, engineers and consultants (AECs), key buyers, decision makers, data center owners and operators.