Follow on Twitter
Subscribe by RSS
The Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME), Britain’s largest standalone Islamic bank, plans to set up an office in Dubai to expand on it’s offerings in capital markets and wealth management. The bank is experiencing 15 percent growth in assets this year, with the GCC move expected to...
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority is in the final stages of developing a regulatory framework to allow foreigners to own stocks directly. The move is being viewed as a way to promote greater foreign investment in the Kingdom, although the market does not need liquidity from...
The Arab Spring did not only have long-lasting political repercussions for Middle East and North Africa, but it has also altered the region’s retail landscape and shaped the future for businesses and consumers. A new report by the Euromonitor International, titled ‘Retail in the Middle East and North Africa: A...
Women’s Entrepreneuship Initiative (WEI) in collaboration with the Ashridge Business School recently launched a report highlighting the growing need of a limited number of Saudi women to be fully represented in the entrepreneurial sector. As proposed by the report, in the attempts to inculcate such change across the Kingdom, regulatory, educational...
The latest edition of The Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings rates Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz University as the best in the Gulf. Covering nearly 17,000 academics, The Times Higher Education Rankings was the world’s largest academic reputation survey. The survey accounted for factors such as number PhDs awarded, staff-to-student...
When the Arab Spring happened across some of the MENA nations in 2011, all eyes were on Saudi Arabia. With unemployment & poverty on the rise and a visibly disgruntled public and living within the confines of restrictive Sharia laws, it was easy to see how some might have thought...
· Saudi beverage market experiencing 8% annual growth · Eleven beverage categories purchased per household · Average of 11 beverage categories per household The Saudi beverage market is growing at an annual rate of over eight percent according to Ranjitha Subash, Consumer Insights Director at Kantar Worldpanel. Their information reveals the beverage sector...
Wadjda is a 12-year old girl who lives near Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she’s growing up in a conservative country, Wadjda is a girl full of life who wears jeans and sneakers, listens to rock music and dreams only of one thing — to buy a beautiful...
Revealing it’s ambitious growth plans, the CEO of Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) has stated that the company is chasing the status of becoming the world’s top producer of refined fuels and petrochemicals. Currently the world’s biggest crude-oil exporter, Saudi Aramco CEO, Khalid Al-Falih told a conference in Beijing...
The Saudi government has given internet messenger application providers an ultimatum of one week to provide a monitoring service or face a ban across the Kingdom. Skype, Viber and Whatsapp will likely face a ban if operators fail to allow authorities in the Kingdom to censor them and allow a monitoring server...
A new report by the global travel market research firm PhoCusWright predicts that the travel market in Saudi Arabia will increase at a steady rate of 4 percent, from USD 10.2 billion in 2012 to USD 11.4 billion in 2014. Co-sponsored by Amadeus, the report is titled ‘Assessing...
Saudi Arabia’s labor reforms appear to be working as more than 600,000 locals have landed jobs with private companies in the kingdom. While economists are wary of drawing conclusions regarding the kingdom’s job market and private sector hiring, these reforms appear to have recorded some early success stories. New data...
As many of you know, I’ve always disagreed with many of the laws set by Saudi Arabia, but in particular with their law prohibiting women from driving. Westerners, as well as some Arabs, see women as oppressed in the Arab world, but more so in Saudi Arabia. The wealthy women...
According to a new rule by the Saudi Ministry of Labor, small and medium-sized businesses in the kingdom will be forced to hire at least one Saudi worker from next month. The rule will be applicable on businesses in Saudi Arabia that employ ten or fewer staff. Government figures show...
In a recent report published by IDC, an increasing number of organizations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are tying up with specialized IT service providers to manage their IT infrastructure. Referencing its 2012 report, IDC says that managed and datacenter services, in particular, have gained significant traction in both...
Pfizer, a major player in the global pharmaceutical industry, has announced that it will soon begin construction work on a new manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia. Foundation stone for the new facility has been laid in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). The 32,000 square meter plant will be built at...
There seems to be an overheating going on in the Saudi economy as the country is primarily depending on a limited sources of income. The dependence on oil primarily does mean that the rising commodity prices can lead to unwanted and uncontrollable inflation. The spending plans underway is based on...
The Ministry of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia claims that there has been a sharp growth in university enrollment largely because of an increase in the income levels of Saudi families and greater interest among women to pursue tertiary education. World Bank figures suggest that the per capita income in...
Saudi Arabia’s top religious cleric believes that the government’s decision to significantly increase fees for companies that employ expats could harm the national economy. In November last year, the government had decided to impose an annual fee of USD 640 per employee on companies that employed a higher proportion of...
The Saudi-based Aujan Group, which entered into a USD 1 billion deal with Coca-Cola Company in December 2011, has announced its plans to actively pursue growth opportunities in the global market. Under the joint venture agreement, Aujan has split into two businesses. One of the companies, called Rani Refreshments, will...
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Governments are to face unprecedented demands in healthcare in the coming decades, partly owing to the high prevalence of chronic diseases like diabetes.The current model where most of the direct healthcare costs are taken up by the state seems to be unsustainable in the long run. A...
A new global survey has ranked Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE as top investment destinations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. These countries have been favored due to a stable business and political climate. Conducted in association with the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA), the Global...
A newly established data center at the Saudi Ministry of Health will promote better health services in the Kingdom by linking 22 regional health directorates, 166 hospitals and more than 40 hospital management centers across the Arab world. The data center will help in provision of better medical services through...
Investment in infrastructure projects could provide a significant opportunity for investors in Saudi Arabia, as Government spending is set to touch SR1 trillion ($266.6bn) in 2013, according to Emirates NBD Wealth Management. Speaking at an investor road show in Riyadh, Mark McFarland, Chief Investment Strategist, Emirates NBD Wealth Management, said,...
The GCC countries are pumping an estimated US $36 billion for the development and upgrade of their port infrastructure amid increasing foreign non-oil trade volumes. Saudi Arabia has allocated more than US $750 million for the port infrastructure development at Dammam’s King Abdul Aziz Port. The development plans include...
Media reports point out that Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has sold his yet to be delivered Airbus A380, popularly dubbed ‘the flying palace’. Quoting the chief financial officer of his Kingdom Holding Company, reports suggest that, “it was sold in the second half of last year”. However, the...
The Saudi-based Kingdom Holding Company will lead a consortium of investors to acquire a US $399 million stake in a Chinese online retail firm. The investment firm, controlled by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, will be acquiring a share in 360buy Jingdong Inc. The online retailer...
New figures released by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health reveal that the healthcare sector created thousands of jobs, with 1,364 specialists recruited from abroad, last year. A total of 2,087 consultant physicians were appointed at various levels to provide health services across the Kingdom. The specialists hired from abroad belong...
PricewaterhouseCoopers has predicted that Saudi Arabia’s economy will grow consistently at an impressive pace and treble to USD 3 trillion by 2050. The PwC’s biannual The World in 2050 report suggests that the Kingdom will grow by 230 percent to US$1582bn by 2030 and then double in the following 20...
A new survey has revealed that the Saudi Arabian consumer remains one of the most optimistic about the state of their personal finances. The findings are part of third annual Emerging Consumer Survey, conducted by Credit Suisse Research Institute. It points out that 33 percent of respondents expect to see...
Residents of Jeddah have demanded the authorities to ensure that factories are relocated from residential areas at an accelerated pace. The Jeddah Municipality has been working closely with Makkah province, Jeddah governorate, the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), Saudi Electricity Company (SET), Civil Defense and the Presidency...
The booming real estate and construction industry in Saudi Arabia will continue to fuel tremendous growth for steel and cement in the coming years. The demand for cement will climb by an estimated 9.4 percent every year to over 80 million tons by 2017. This significant growth would be achieved...
The U.S. will surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia this year to become the largest producer of liquid fuels (oil, natural gas and biofuels), according to the latest report by the British oil major BP. In November 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) had forecast that the U.S. will overtake...
”A multinational firm from UK has plans of expanding its operations in the Middle East. Because of the cultural differences and marked business practices in the Middle East and GCC countries, they need guidance and legal representation in setting up their operations, corporate restructuring, capital increases and reductions, business licencing...
We live in a corporate age which is in constant dynamics,always paving way to innovation and excellence. The old ways give rise to the new, belief systems change and opportunities are constantly throwing up greater challenges and growth prospects for companies and organizations. It’s a fact that the fundamental leaders of growth...
Saudi Arabia’s state media has reported that Saudi King Abdullah in a historic move has appointed women to a fifth of the seats in the country’s powerful Shura Council. In the two royal decrees issued today, King Abdullah reconstituted the council for a new four-year term and ordered that women...
A new report by computer security software corporation Symantec has revealed that Saudi firms are poorly equipped to deal with cyber attacks because of “lack of data backup operations on daily basis”. As information technology assumes greater importance in today’s business environment, an increasing number of Saudi firms are digitizing...
Saudi Aramco, the Saudi oil giant, is making active efforts to explore and develop new gas reserves to meet the growing demand for electricity in the kingdom. According to Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi, “King Abdullah has given instructions to carry out more gas drilling and development operations...
Saudi Arabia earned an estimated USD 16.5 billion from pilgrimage rituals of Hajj and Umrah in 2012, a 10 percent increase compared to the previous year. A record number of over 7 million pilgrims flocked the kingdom to perform holy rituals in the cities of Makkah, Madinah and at other...
Saudi based Social Media Agency ‘The Social Clinic’ in its latest report “The State of Social Media in Saudi Arabia 2012″ has revealed that the country is one of the fastest growing in social media usage in the GCC. The study covered the major social media websites like YouTube, Facebook,...
When America became a third-world country http://t.co/BMJiFaV8St - posted on 21/05/2013 21:27:10Dubai’s magic of retail therapy http://t.co/hwdQZpTWVI #dubai #retail - posted on 21/05/2013 21:19:12MENA grows fastest in e-commerce http://t.co/LzBc3iunrx - posted on 21/05/2013 21:16:34NASA Takes A 6000-Mile Panorama Photo http://t.co/syay6Mf35a - posted on 21/05/2013 21:16:0333 Ways Facebook Ruins Your Life http://t.co/0o8OQ8J88B #socialmedia - posted on 21/05/2013 21:00:58Apple accused of $74bn US tax evasion http://t.co/NZ4WvNYi3H #tech #tax - posted on 21/05/2013 20:56:29Poll: Teens migrating to #Twitter http://t.co/pfXhcv4T5u #PewResearch #facebook - posted on 21/05/2013 20:52:28Saudi Arabia detains 10 more in Iran spying case http://t.co/Ec6hhDbHM3 - posted on 21/05/2013 20:45:45Youtube debuts MENA comedy bandwagon http://t.co/nMJU70lXBK #youtube #comedy - posted on 21/05/2013 11:13:46Dubai hotel to provide guests with gold iPad http://t.co/g7oysw4mHn #dubai - posted on 21/05/2013 09:29:19
