Recent stories from sustg

  • Seven years of prosperity and development
     

    Saudi Arabia will mark the seventh anniversary of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s accession to the Saudi throne on May 17 with a variety of programs highlighting the remarkable progress achieved by the Kingdom in education, health, industry, agriculture and other sectors under his wise leadership. King Abdullah’s announcement at the Shoura […]

     
  • Saudi Perspective on the Middle East: Obaid
     

    In this SUSRIS exclusive presentation, the “Saudi Perspective on the Middle East: The View from Riyadh” assessment provides: the background and context for Saudi diplomacy — assets and characteristics; economic and energy data; sources of regional instability; the “New Gulf Union”; profile of Gulf defense configurations; the Kingdom’s role in regional stabilization and its political and […]

     
  • Jadwa: Inflation Report, April 2012
     

    Year-on-year inflation dipped to 5.3 percent in April from 5.4 percent in March. Lower food price inflation was the main reason for the decline. Rental inflation picked up.

     
  • Not a Drop to Drink: The Global Water Crisis
     

    In the next twenty years, global demand for fresh water will vastly outstrip reliable supply in many parts of the world. Thanks to population growth and agricultural intensification, humanity is drawing more heavily than ever on shared river basins and underground aquifers. Meanwhile, global warming is projected to exacerbate shortages in already water-stressed regions, even […]

     
  • Petchem projects lead Saudi industrialization drive
     

    The Saudi project market continues to thrive. Latest data from Meed put the value of projects “planned or underway” at $745 billion in mid-April, around 13 percent higher than a year earlier. These figures need to be treated with some caution: The topline number is some 30 percent larger than the nominal size of the […]

     
  • USTR: Saudi Continues to Protect Intellectual Property Rights
     

    The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Monday released the 2012 Special 301 Report reviewing the intellectual property protection policies of foreign nations.  Saudi Arabia is not named on the “Watch List” again this year and has not been since a successful Out-of-Cycle Review in 2009 to resolve IP issues in cooperation with the […]

     
  • How Gulf Countries Are Splurging at Home
     

    Asa Fitch, writing in the Wall Street Journal, details the extent to which oil dollars are fueling economic growth “at home” for GCC countries: Booming oil prices are flooding Arab countries with money, but where the lion’s share of that wealth would once have been pumped into the world’s financial markets, much of it is […]

     
  • Island in the Gulf – A Film of Juraid Island
     

    One of the great joys of living in Saudi Arabia has always been the natural environment itself – the dunes, the jebals and especially the Gulf with its beaches, reefs and islands. For those lucky enough to visit Juraid Island, fifteen miles offshore from Jubail, the experience has always been unforgettable. A pristine island shaped […]

     
  • Foreign Military Sales Keep Production Lines Hot
     

    “Partnership building is part of one of the largest benefits that we see,” Hunt said. “It’s building and maintaining friendships, it’s about building allies. United States Central Command, or CENTCOM, is obviously a very busy place for the United States now. The more that we can help those countries not only defend, but operate amongst […]

     
  • SEC unveils SR452b projects
     

    The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has allocated SR452 billion to implement energy projects until the year 2021 according to SEC Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr. Saleh Bin Hussein Al-Awaji. These projects will provide services consistent with international standards, including building up an adequate power at a peak time about 10 percent of combined capacity. The […]

     

MUST-READS

  • Israel claims to kill Hezbollah senior commander in Beirut strike

    Israel's military claimed it killed Hezbollah's most senior commander in an airstrike on Beirut on Tuesday, in retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack that killed 12 youngsters three days ago which it blamed on the Lebanese armed group. A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above Beirut's southern suburbs - a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah - at around 7:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), a Reuters witness said.

  • Oil Prices Soar After Israel Kills Hamas Leader and Hezbollah Senior Commander

    Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said Hizbollah had “crossed the red line” with the attack, and days later launched three rockets into the Haret Hreik neighborhood in Beirut. Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned "blatant Israeli aggression" and Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the attack as “a blatant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

  • The Evolution of Bahrain’s Post-Pandemic Economic Philosophy

    Governments across the world continue to evolve their approaches regarding how involved they should be to best support the economy based on their own experience and in response to the emergence of new intellectual or academic theories. Bahrain reflects a microcosm of this general trend, as its economic strategy has gradually metamorphosed during the last 30 years. A key feature has been a transition to a more interventionist approach following the state’s successful management of the coronavirus pandemic.

  • Who was Ismail Haniyeh and why is his assassination a blow to Hamas?

    Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was killed in Iran, was the tough-talking face of the Palestinian group's international diplomacy as war raged back in Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike. But despite the rhetoric, he was seen by many diplomats as a moderate compared to the more hardline members of the Iran-backed group inside Gaza.

  • Inside story: The assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran

    The Iranian capital was quiet at night after the July 30 inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, which brought scores of foreign delegations to Tehran. But at 1:45 am local time, shocked residents in the affluent north of the city reported the sound of a loud explosion. Within hours, Iranian authorities confirmed that Ismail Haniyeh, the visiting leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement’s political bureau, had been assassinated. A regular visitor in recent years, Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Pezeshkian.

  • Saudi Arabia’s Q2 GDP shrinks by an estimated 0.4% y/y

    Saudi Arabia's real gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.4% year-on-year in the second quarter, preliminary data by the government's statistical authority showed on Wednesday, driven by a 8.5% decline in oil activities which has limited overall growth for several quarters. GDP had decreased 1.7% in the first quarter of 2024, as cuts to oil production have continued to weigh on the major oil exporter's economy.

  • Saudi Arabia Is Near End of Economic Slump Lasting Four Quarters

    Forecasts compiled by Bloomberg show the $1.1 trillion economy is set to return to growth in the third quarter with a gain of almost 4%, in what would be the biggest acceleration since the end of 2022. “We expect this to be the last quarter of deeply negative hydrocarbon sector growth,” said Carla Slim, an economist with Standard Chartered Plc.

  • Saudi Cabinet session praises Kingdom’s 2034 FIFA World Cup bid

    The Saudi Cabinet on Tuesday praised the submission of Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the 2034 World Cup, Saudi Press Agency reported. In a session chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Cabinet said the hosting of the World Cup would show the Kingdom’s determination to present an exceptional version of the major sporting event. The bid was submitted to FIFA officials in Paris on Monday by a delegation headed by the Saudi minister of sports, Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Faisal, and President of the Saudi Football Federation Yasser Al-Misehal.

  • An insight into the activities of Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Competition – highlights of its 2023 annual report

    The Authority carried out a staggering number of 548 dawn raids in 2023, meaning an average of 2.2 dawn raids every business day. The Authority investigated 442 entities and ultimately indicted 186 of them.

  • Saudi commerce minister leads delegation to Korea

    Trade ties in light of the free trade agreement between the Gulf Cooperation Council and South Korea were discussed when a leading Saudi minister met the East Asian country’s prime minister.  As part of his three-day visit to the republic, Saudi Minister of Commerce Majid Al-Qasabi held talks with Han Duck-soo in Seoul. An FTA between South Korea and the GCC was signed in December 2023, with the East Asian nation agreeing to remove tariffs on almost 90 percent of all items, including liquefied natural gas and other petroleum products.