in mining-technology.com: Saudi Arabia has signed nine significant investment agreements in the metals and mining sector, exceeding $9.3bn (SR34.88bn) in value, with major global companies such as Vedanta from India and China’s Zijin Group, Reuters reported. Vedanta is set to establish copper facilities at Ras Al-Khair with a capital expenditure of SR7.5bn, including a smelter, a refinery with a capacity of 400,000 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) and a 300,000mtpa copper rod plant. Zijin plans to invest between SR5bn and SR6bn, with the initial phase dedicated to constructing a zinc smelter capable of producing 100,000 tons per annum (tpa) of zinc ingots and 200,000tpa of sulphuric acid.

Via Valentina Pasquali in agbi.com: Saudi authorities have implemented many legal reforms in recent years.  Crucially, say sources, those include a new framework that since last year has supported foreign law firms’ creation of joint ventures with local counterparts, including through full-blown acquisitions, or wholly-owned Saudi subsidiaries. Foreign lawyers have been cleared to practice in Saudi Arabia in 2021 if they secure a license from the Saudi Bar Association. “These reforms, along with the modernisation of the legal and dispute resolution systems, ensure that foreign law firms can operate independently,” says Nassar. Saudi Arabia has upgraded its framework for cross-border bankruptcy proceedings, arbitration, investments, domestic commercial disputes and is looking to reform labour-related regulation, according to sources.

Via Angelo Amante in yahoo.com: A partnership involving Italy, Britain and Japan to build an advanced front-line fighter jet will likely be extended to Saudi Arabia, the Italian foreign minister said on Wednesday. The three countries agreed in December 2022 on the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), the first major defence industry collaboration merging the separate next-generation fighter efforts of the countries. The deal we have with Britain and Japan … I think will now be extended to Saudi Arabia, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said. The partners aim to see the combat aircraft in flight around the middle of next decade. Firms including Leonardo, BAE Systems and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been involved in the project.

Via Cecilia Jamasmie in mining.com: Vedanta Copper, a subsidiary of India’s Vedanta Limited (NSE: VEDL), has announced plans to invest $2 billion in copper-processing facilities in Saudi Arabia, a fresh boost to the kingdom’s aspirations to establish itself as a global hub for metals and mining. The investment will fund the construction of a state-of-the-art smelter and refinery with an annual capacity of 400,000 tonnes, the company said. Vedanta also plans to develop a facility capable of producing up to 300,000 tonnes per year of copper rods —an essential component in electric cable manufacturing.

Via Shuli Ren in channelnewsasia.com: Foreign fund managers have likened Saudi Arabia’s 2016 opening to China’s. I don’t think that’s quite fair, because Saudi is already a developed country in terms of infrastructure. Its roads are well-built and its malls are full of American chain stores – nothing like the 1980s China I knew. What we saw was an open, friendly nation that welcomed visitors. We blended in as well as any foreigners would in Abu Dhabi or Dubai, and we didn’t spot the much-feared religious police. In Medina, we accidentally roamed into the courtyard of the Prophet’s Mosque, not knowing that it was for Muslims only. When a policeman asked us to leave, his tone was apologetic.

Via Kareem Chehayeb, Baseem Mroue and Josef Federman in apnews.com: The ceasefire calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border. Thousands of additional Lebanese troopsand U.N. peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor compliance. The ceasefire began at 4 a.m. Wednesday, a day after Israel carried out its most intense wave of airstrikes in Beirut since the start of the conflict that in recent weeks turned into all-out war. At least 42 people were killed in strikes across the country, according to local authorities. The ceasefire does not address the devastating war in Gaza, where Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages and the conflict is more intractable.

Via Natasha Turak in cnbc.com: One Gulf-based financier with years of experience in the kingdom told CNBC: “The PIF’s pivot towards domestic investments, widely acknowledged but now officially admitted, suggests that there is still a lot of spending needed. Saudi Arabia has poured tens of billions into projects that have yet to hint of any financial returns.” “The number of ‘we pay up front and hope for economic returns later’ giga projects that are currently underway is not sustainable,” Leber said. “With that being said,” he added, “the Saudi monarchy has shown itself to be somewhat flexible whenever economic realities assert themselves. I do think that eventually, a number of projects will be quietly shelved in order to bring its fiscal outlays back into greater sustainability.” The kingdom’s economy also swung dramatically from a budget surplus of $27.68 billion in 2022 to a deficit of $21.6 billion in 2023 as it ramped up public spending and decreased oil production due to its OPEC+ supply cut agreement. Its government forecasts a deficit of $21.1 billion for 2024, projecting revenue at $312.5 billion and expenditures at $333.5 billion.

Via Nirmal Narayanan in arabnews.com: Saudi Arabia’s non-oil exports reached SR79.48 billion ($21.17 billion) in the third quarter of 2024, a rise of 16.76 percent compared to the same period in 2023, according to official data. As reported by the General Authority for Statistics, the Kingdom exported non-oil goods worth SR19.58 billion to the UAE, followed by India and China at SR6.78 billion and SR6.48 billion. Chemical products led Saudi Arabia’s non-energy exports in the third quarter, accounting for 25.5 percent of total shipments, marking a 5.3 percent annual rise. Plastic and rubber products followed, comprising 24.9 percent of the total, with an 8.9 percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2023.

Via Matt McGrath in bbc.com: COP29 is over, with developing countries complaining that the $300bn (about £240bn) a year in climate finance they will receive by 2035 is a paltry sum. Many of the rich country voices at the UNs climate conference were amazed that developing nations were unhappy with what on the surface seems a huge settlement. It is an improvement – on the current contribution of $100bn (£79.8bn) a year. However, the developing world, which had pushed for more, had many genuine issues with the final sum. There were complaints it simply was not enough and that it was a mixture of grants and loans. And countries were deeply annoyed by the way the wealthy waited until the last minute to reveal their hand.

Via Matt Roller in espn.com: The auction marks Saudi Arabia’s first major play in cricket, though the foundations have been laid gradually. Prince Mishal bin Saud Al-Saud, chairman of the Saudi Arabia Cricket Federation (SACF), was pictured with BCCI secretary Jay Shah at the opening match of IPL 2023, while state-backed Saudi companies have signed lucrative sponsorship deals in the past. Visit Saudi, the state tourism arm, and Aramco, the state-owned oil giant, have both been prominent IPL sponsors. Aramco has also signed a long-term agreement as a premier partner of the ICC, including securing naming rights for match awards at World Cups. This year Rajasthan Royals wore the logo of Neom, a futuristic city being built on the Saudi coast, on their shirts.

Via Abeer Abu Omar in yahoo.com: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign rating was upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service for the first time since the company initially assessed it in 2016, driven by continued progress in the kingdom’s economic diversification and a better outlook for the non-oil sector. The agency moved Saudi Arabia’s rating up a notch, to Aa3 from A1, its fourth-highest grade, according to a statement late Friday. The Moody’s rating is now above those of Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings. The Gulf country now stands on par with the likes of Hong Kong and Belguim, according to Moody’s, which changed its outlook for the kingdom to stable from positive.

Via Christine Burke in bloomberg.com: But in 2018, there were some winds of change. Saudi Arabia became the world’s last country to permit female motorists. It later announced reforms allowing women to set up businesses without male consent, hold a job while being pregnant and travel independently. In four years, the female labor participation rate nearly doubled to about 37%. Today Albassam scouts for deals for Silicon Valley venture capital firm Graphene Ventures as a principal in Riyadh and other women like her are climbing the ranks of business and finance — trading stocks, forging mergers and running companies. Rare interviews with almost a dozen senior female leaders in Saudi Arabia show a dramatic about turn in a country that had few women workers a decade ago. Some who had never spoken publicly before agreed to interviews on the record because they were keen to highlight the advances. Others asked not to be named because they didn’t want to discuss their lives publicly, but even they were deeply optimistic about the prospects for local women in the workplace.