MUST-READS

• Security
  South Africa Seeks to Unlock Stalled Arms Sales to Saudi, UAE

  South Africa aims to free up over a billion dollars in stalled weapons sales, including to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, by amending a document at the heart of an export row, a senior arms control official told Reuters. Local defense firms have lobbied the government for months to change a clause in the export document requiring foreign customers to allow South African officials to inspect their facilities to verify that weapons aren't being transferred to third parties.

• Qiddiya
  Contract awarded to secure Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya project boundaries

  Qiddiya has awarded a contract to Saudi Pan Kingdom Company (SAPAC) to build perimeter fencing as construction ramps up at the site. The Saudi construction company will place security fencing around the entire premises of Qiddiya. This first layer of security will enable a slew of construction projects, set to begin this year, to begin bringing in heavy construction machinery and restrict unauthorized access to the site.

• Entrepreneurship
  The hot areas Saudi entrepreneurs should be looking at

  Saudi Arabia’s economic development program aims to increase the gross domestic product (GDP) contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 20 percent at present to 35 percent by 2030. Along the way, entrepreneurship opportunities will grow across a wide range of sectors, in what is by all accounts a significantly underserved market.

• Stock Market
  Saudi leads most of Gulf lower; Aramco rebounds

  Most major Gulf markets fell on Sunday, led by Saudi Arabia as concerns about the effect of the spread of the coronavirus on oil prices weighed on the country's petrochemical and banking shares. Oil prices posted their fifth straight weekly decline, as speculators backed away due to weaker consumption figures and expectations the coronavirus will remain a drag on demand.

• UAE Economy
  Dubai’s Jobs Vanish at the Fastest Pace in a Decade

  Across the U.A.E. as a whole -- of which Dubai is a part -- business conditions fell into contraction last month for the first time ever. Already under pressure from regional geopolitical tensions, Dubai’s travel and tourism industry actually showed a “modest improvement” in January, IHS Markit said. But now it faces disruptions because of the viral outbreak in China.

• U.S.-Arab Trade
  U.S. Exports to Arab World Grow 4 Percent in 2019

  The United Arab Emirates ($20.04 billion) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ($14.29 billion) continued to be the two largest destinations by far for U.S. goods in the Arab world.  Together, these two countries accounted for 55 percent of total U.S. goods exported to the MENA region in 2019.

• Venture Capital
  Saudi VC Fund Hires From Google to Help Build Tech Unicorns

  One of the Middle East’s largest venture capital funds hired Ivan Jakovljevic from Google Inc. to help transform its portfolio of start-ups into so-called unicorns. Jakovljevic will join Saudi Arabia’s STV -- which backed Dubai-based ride-hailing firm Careem Inc. before its sale to Uber Technologies Inc. -- as chief development officer next month, the company said in a statement. He was previously head of new markets for Google in the Middle East and North Africa.

• Yemen
  UN Medical Relief Flights Continue From Yemen’s Capital

  Flights transporting Yemeni medical patients from rebel-held areas continued Saturday when a second plane carrying 24 patients took off from Sanaa bound for Jordan's capital, the U.N. health agency said. The U.N. flights, which began this week, are seen as a humanitarian breakthrough in the more than five-year-old conflict in the Arab world's poorest country. The conflict began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by the rebel Houthis, who control much of the country's north.

• Syria
  Syrian forces capture new areas from insurgents

  Syrian government forces have captured new areas from insurgents in their offensive in the north-west, as Turkey sends more reinforcements into the country, state media and opposition activists said. The weeks-long government offensive has created a humanitarian crisis with about 600,000 people having fled their homes in Syria’s last rebel stronghold since the beginning of December, according to the United Nations.

• Yemen Civil War
  White House Confirms Killing of Terrorist Leader in Yemen

  The United States killed the leader of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, the White House confirmed on Thursday. The confirmation came about a week after The New York Times first reported that the United States believed it had killed Qassim al-Rimi, the Qaeda leader, in January after months of tracing him. The C.I.A. carried out the airstrike using an unmanned drone, an intelligence official said.

  • The National - How Yemen's civil war played a role in Africa's great locust swarm
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