“Female Saudi graduates have significantly outnumbered Saudi men in the national on-the-job training programme launched by the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf). Hadaf said 74 per cent of 61,000 participants – who have benefited from Tamheer, a three to six-month on-the-job training scheme for Saudi graduates, since its launch in 2017 – were female. Most of the participants were from Makkah, Riyadh and the Eastern Province. The number of women with jobs in Saudi Arabia has nearly doubled in the last five years and now stands at more than 35 per cent of the workforce.”
“The main goal for younger generations is to make sure they don’t feel entitled. They cannot get a job just because they are a family member. We are cascading this value down so as to demolish entitlement. If you work hard, you will get rewarded.”
-Nouf Al Zamil, Director of Corporate Communications and ICT at Al Zamil Group. KPMG released a study providing insights gathered from interviewing women business leaders from leading family businesses across Saudi Arabia. [KPMG]
“This experience would be the first of many to reinforce the notion of safety in Saudi Arabia. I was able to walk around a city of nearly 8 million people at 1 a.m. with my wallet in my back pocket without a care in the world. Can you imagine the same scenario in San Francisco?”
-Justin Huff, writing for Luxury Travel Advisor, on his recent trip to Saudi Arabia. Huff recently traveled to Saudi Arabia with the Travel + Leisure Academy and said he was extremely impressed by the city of AlUla. [Luxury Travel Advisor]
“Over the last 18 months Saudi Arabia has hosted three pics with Hollywood ties: Gerard Butler action-thriller “Kandahar,” directed by Ric Roman Waugh, which was filmed in AlUla, a sprawling area of desert and giant boulders that boasts an ancient city; British director Rupert Wyatt’s historical tentpole “Desert Warrior,” toplined by “Captain America” star Anthony Mackie, which was shot in NEOM, a futuristic city being built in the Tabuk province of northwestern Saudi Arabia; and a small segment of the Russo Brothers’ crime drama “Cherry” which shot in AlUla and the Saudi of capital Riyadh. These films all tapped into the Saudi rebate even before it was fine-tuned and made official, which it now is.”
[Variety]
“We have always seen normalization as the end result for a path. Normalization between the region and Israel will bring benefits but we won’t be able to reap those benefits unless we are able to address the issue of Palestine.”
-Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan during a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland. [Axios]
“We are at the cusp of a vicious cycle that could impact societies for years. The pandemic and war in Ukraine have fragmented the global economy and created far-reaching consequences that risk wiping out the gains of the last 30 years. Leaders face difficult choices and trade-offs domestically when it comes to debt, inflation and investment. Yet business and government leaders must also recognize the absolute necessity of global cooperation to prevent economic misery and hunger for millions around the world.”
-Saadia Zahidi, World Economic Forum Managing Director. [Business Standard]
“We need a more constructive dialogue. They say we don’t need you by 2030, so why would you go and build a project that takes 6-7 years. Your shareholder will not allow you to do it. There is no good plan… When you don’t have plan B ready, don’t demonize plan A. The pressure and the rhetoric is — don’t invest, you will have stranded assets. It makes it difficult for CEOs to make investments.”
-Amin Nasser, CEO, Saudi Aramco. [Reuters]
“The windfall from the additional revenues that we will get from high oil prices will be essentially invested in resilience. Whether it’s replenishing reserves, paying off debt or investing in unique transformational projects through our wealth fund — that really helps us accelerate the diversification plans.”
-Faisal Alibrahim, minister of economy and planning, said in an interview at the Davos conference in Switzerland. [Bloomberg]
“With this momentous agreement, we welcome Lucid’s first electric vehicle plant outside the US. KAEC and Saudi Arabia stand to reap considerable long-term benefits from the project, which is expected to produce 150,000 electric vehicles per year upon completion and create over 4,500 jobs in the city. The sustainable-mobility options the plant is set to provide, along with a marked uptick in employment opportunities, will bolster KAEC’s reputation as the Kingdom’s leading automotive hub and a vision-ready platform for investors everywhere. ”
-Cyril Piaia, CEO of Emaar The Economic City, master developer of KAEC, commenting on the agreement to establish Lucid’s Advanced Manufacturing Plant #2 in KAEC. [Lucid Motors]
“Unlike fossil fuels, the cost of residential electricity has stayed consistent, with the national average hovering between 12 and 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. Electricity prices aren’t as volatile because the US has many sources of electric power, including wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear plants, and domestic oil and gas drilling….Rather than having all your eggs in one basket, like you do with the gasoline market, you have multiple eggs in multiple baskets.”
–Sara Baldwin, director of electrification policy at the Energy Innovation think tank. It’s now three times cheaper to fuel an electric car than a gas-powered car in the US. [Quartz]
