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  • Saudi Arabia: Pilgrims urged to avoid crowding as Umrah peaks

    Saudi authorities have exhorted Muslims performing Umrah to avoid crowding as the minor pilgrimage season reaches its peak in the holy city of Mecca. The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has urged the faithful to manifest altruism to head off congestion and jostling at the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest place.

  • Local content rate surges to 43% in Saudi Arabia , with a 20% jump in spending

    Abdulrahman Al-Samari, CEO of the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority, said that the growth rate of local content in Saudi Arabia has now reached 43 percent. The spending on content has increased by 20 percent. This is in addition to activating signed agreements to serve companies operating in the Kingdom, he said. Al-Samari made the remarks while addressing a dialogue session at the PIF Private Sector Forum in Riyadh on Wednesday. The dialogue session is titled “Supporting local content to empower the private sector.” Those who addressed the session also included Ma’aden CEO Robert Wilt, Managing Director of Cisco Salman Faqeeh, and Director of the National Development Division at the Public Investment Fund Jerry Todd.

  • The US and Saudi Arabia are taking COP28 pledges seriously

    Assuming COP28 pledges to limit global warming are met, both the energy and climate crises would be solved. According to the UN summit’s pled on renewables and energy efficiency, adopted last December in Dubai, “to limit warming to 1.5°C, the world requires three times more renewable energy capacity by 2030, and must double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements from around 2% to over 4% every year until 2030”. But meeting these objectives will be a tall order.

  • Saudi Arabia’s investment ministry withdraws budget data

    Saudi Arabia's investment ministry removed fiscal data from a monthly bulletin published earlier on Monday on its website that showed the kingdom would record a budget surplus in 2023. There was no fiscal data in an updated version of the report on the website. A government official told Reuters that the numbers published earlier were not based on the latest 2023 fiscal data forecasts calculated by the finance ministry and were published in error.

  • CENTCOM chief in Saudi Arabia to meet top military general as violence engulfs region

    The top US military general for the Middle East met with Saudi Arabia’s Chief of General Staff, Gen. Fayyad Al-Ruwaili, on Wednesday to discuss deepening military and defense ties, the Saudi Ministry of Defense said. United States Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Gen. Erik Kurilla visited the Kingdom, where they discussed bilateral relations as well as the prospects for cooperation in various fields, a statement from the Saudi ministry said.

  • Saudi Arabia To Witness Surge In Number Of Millionaires In Next Decade

    According to Henley & Partners’ BRICS Wealth Report, the Kingdom presently holds the sixth position within the bloc in terms of high-net-worth individuals. The consulting agency added that Saudi Arabia currently hosts 58,300 millionaires, encompassing 195 centi-millionaires and 22 billionaires, marking a significant 32 percent increase since 2013. Centi-millionaires, defined as individuals with assets exceeding $100 million, contribute to this affluent demographic.

  • BRICS Gets Boost as Saudi Arabia Joins Group of Emerging Nations

    South Africa’s foreign minister said Saudi Arabia and four other countries have accepted the invitation to join the BRICS club of nations that was extended during a summit last year. Minister Naledi Pandor said that Russia, who takes over as chair of the bloc this year from South Africa, has received written interest from 34 countries who want to join. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates are now full members, she said.

  • Saudi Arabia to host largest-ever UN conference on land and drought

    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) signed an agreement paving the way for the 16th session of the Convention’s Conference of the Parties (COP16) in Riyadh from 2-13 December 2024. The Riyadh COP16 will be the largest-ever meeting of UNCCD’s 197 Parties, the first to be held in the Middle East region and the largest multilateral conference ever hosted by Saudi Arabia. 2024 also marks the 30th anniversary of the UNCCD, one of the three major environmental treaties known as the Rio Conventions, alongside climate change and biodiversity.

  • Even in defeat, Roberto Mancini should still get a chance to lead Saudi Arabia into the future

    But putting aside Mancini's reputation and past achievement, he is a man who certainly looks like he has a plan with Saudi Arabia. Lest it is forgotten, given the headlines have surrounded South Korea's incredible escape, the Green Falcons were literally a minute away from advancing to the quarterfinals -- until Cho Gue-Sung's dramatic 99th-minute equaliser forced extra-time, and then the shootout which South Korea prevailed in.

  • Average life expectancy in Saudi Arabia rises to 77.6 years

    In application of the principle of ‘prevention is better than treatment’ and early detection, it is pointed out that more than five million people have been subjected to exploratory obesity screening, including over a million cases of early detection. More than one million people underwent exploratory screening for diabetes, including about 11,000 early detection cases, in addition to about 160,000 women undergoing early breast cancer screening, which resulted in 654 early detection cases. This detection contributes to the treatment of cases discovered in their early stages.