Recent stories from sustg

  • Saudi car sales to hit $25 billion by 2013
     

    Saudi Arabia has ambitious plans to further expand its lucrative automobile industry. In 2011 alone, the Kingdom announced the sale of approximately 800,000 cars potentially increasing to 1 million vehicles per year by the end of the current decade. In this context, the country is planning to start manufacturing automobile parts by 2013 in addition […]

     
  • Muslims across the world prepare to observe Ramadan
     

    Muslims around the world begin fasting on Friday in observation of Ramadan, the holiest month in Islam when the faithful abstain from eating food or drinking water from sunrise to sunset…. Every year, identifying the start of Ramadan is like a waiting game; Islamic scholars must see the new crescent moon in the night skies […]

     
  • Moving forward with nationalisation in Saudi Arabia
     

    “Nitaqat represents an effort to introduce more incentives for companies to employ Saudis and in that sense it is an improvement on what went before,” says James Reeve, an economist at the local Samba Financial Group. “The reason you are hearing more complaints is probably because the system is being enforced with greater vigour.” Despite […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia Ghazal Defies Camels as SUV for Desert Market
     

    Saudi Arabia is venturing into a territory normally reserved for automakers. The kingdom is developing the Ghazal, a sport-utility vehicle for the hazards of the desert, to diversify its economy beyond oil. The SUV, built by King Saud University in Riyadh, is an all-wheel drive vehicle with a rugged carbon-fiber frame aimed at taking on […]

     
  • Living Social
     

    In their pursuit to be where the young consum­ers are, brands have long identified social media as a crucial place to establish a presence. Where else will you find huge numbers of youngsters highly active and engaged? Results from market research company TNS indicate that 68 percent of MENA youth spend 12 hours per  week […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia to Send Olympic Women Athletes for First Time
     

    Saudi Arabia will send female athletes to the Olympic Games for the first time, the International Olympic Committee said, ending a ban by the kingdom where women aren’t allowed to drive. Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani will compete in judo at the London Games and Sarah Attar will run the 800 meters. The athletes, who […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia wins oil battle against Iran
     

    It seems that the first round in the series of the ferocious battles between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two giant oil-exporting countries, was settled in favor of the latter. The Kingdom continued to produce oil regardless of the Iranian threats warning the Kingdom against filling the shortage in oil supplies that might result from […]

     
  • Showing Pragmatism, Egypt’s Morsi Looks to Saudi
     

    The first official foreign visit of any newly elected president represents a significant symbolic statement. Knowing this, new leaders choose their first visit very carefully, often selecting a country that is either a major strategic ally or an important trade partner. Nonetheless, the Egyptian government’s announcement that President Mohammed Morsi’s first foreign visit will take […]

     
  • Underground in Arabia
     

    Born and raised in Dhahran, I thought I had seen most of the natural wonders of the Eastern kingdom from the towering dunes of the Rub’ Al Khali to the pristine reefs of the Gulf, so it was a true surprise to read the manuscript for John Pint’s Underground in Arabia. I had visited the […]

     
  • Saudi Aramco to invest in new energy ventures
     

    Saudi Aramco has launched an investment arm to buy into companies that have developed technologies of strategic importance to Saudi Arabia and speed their deployment in the kingdom, the state-run energy group said. Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures LLC (SAEV) plans to invest in start-up and high-growth ventures offering new technologies to the upstream and downstream […]

     

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