Author: Steven Sahiounie

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has reached a significant milestone as its gross domestic product crossed the coveted 1 trillion-dollar mark for the first time, revealed the umbrella body of the Kingdom’s business community. According to the state-run news agency, the Federation of Saudi Chambers revealed that the Kingdom achieved the GDP of SR4.15 trillion ($1.11 trillion), meeting the state’s goals for 2025. The Saudi Press Agency cited the FSC study reporting that the Kingdom achieved an economic growth rate of 8.7 percent in 2022, the highest among the member states of G20. The report also found that the private sector’s contribution…

RIYADH: As several nations in the Middle East and North Africa region are steadily diversifying their economies, the Arab Forum for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency has urged them to focus on localizing the nonconventional power sector, according to Qatar News Agency. The eighth edition of the forum, held in the Jordanian capital Amman, also called for manufacturing electric cars locally and contributing to new energy sources like green hydrogen. Furthermore, the forum stressed the need for universities in the Arab region to focus on renewable power, energy efficiency and management besides electric cars, smart cities and green hydrogen. Earlier this…

RIYADH: The “UN Group of Friends for Digital Cooperation” was launched at the UN headquarters in New York by five member states of the Digital Cooperation Organization — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Cyprus, Pakistan and Rwanda, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The SPA said the DCO formed the group to facilitate international digital cooperation and advocate sustainable growth of the electronic economy, promoting prosperity and social inclusion globally. This initiative was introduced on the sidelines of the 78th UN Annual General Assembly meeting. The group underscored the profound impact of digital technologies on societies over the past two decades, connecting…

Key industry players from over 50 countries convene at the Future Hospitality Summit from Sept. 25-27 RIYADH: The global hospitality sector is set to witness a significant influx of investment as key industry players from over 50 countries convene at the Future Hospitality Summit in Abu Dhabi from Sept. 25-27. Centered around the theme “Focus on Investment,” the event will serve as a catalyst for change, facilitating interactions among over 1,000 hospitality leaders through debates, dialogues, initiatives, and announcements. Hosted at the Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island, the agenda for the three-day event includes contributions from more than 150 speakers in…

RIYADH: Reflecting robust economic growth, Saudi Arabia’s financial markets reported a remarkable performance in 2022, surpassing the targets outlined in Vision 2030. The Kingdom’s Capital Market Authority witnessed an uptick in 2022, with 49 new listings, beating the projected 24 for that year, marking a completion rate of 204 percent, according to a statement by Mohammed El-Kuwaiz, chairman of the authority. The stock market’s capitalization as a proportion of the country’s gross domestic product also increased by 91 percent, exceeding the initial Vision 2030 strategic objective of 77 percent. Furthermore, the debt instruments market had initially aimed to comprise 18.7 percent of the GDP. However, by the end of the…

Supplies jumped by 60% from January to August in annual terms, customs data shows   Russian supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China saw unprecedented growth of 60% in annual terms in the first eight months of the year, Chinese customs data released this week showed. Russia delivered 5.45 million tons of LNG to China between January and August, becoming its third largest supplier after Qatar and Australia. In terms of value, Russian LNG imports jumped by 10.7% and exceeded $3.53 billion for the reported period, customs data showed. Shipments to China in August surged by…

Counterfeit currency has reportedly flooded the region Baristas in Kosovo cafes have given up checking €2 coins for authenticity, as most of them are fake and the high quality of the counterfeits makes it almost impossible to distinguish them from genuine currency. “At the beginning, everyone was worried and was checking if the €2 coins were fake or not,” a Pristina cafe waiter told Reuters. He explained that retailers could test the coins by holding them up to the light or by dropping them on a surface to hear the sound they made. “Now we don’t check anymore … we may…

Turnover between January and August soared past $155 billion, customs data has shown Trade between Russia and China has maintained its brisk momentum since reaching record levels in 2022, with exports and imports experiencing robust growth since the start of this year, as per this week’s update from the Russian Customs Service. According to the service’s Telegram channel, bilateral trade between the two countries surged by 25% from January to August compared to last year. Data from China’s customs agency showed previously that trade turnover amounted to $155.1 billion during this period. The Russian customs authority said that Moscow and…

Warsaw had previously extended its embargo on Ukrainian grain despite the EU lifting the restriction Ukraine and Poland could reach a compromise solution to allow grain transit through the EU nation, Kiev’s deputy economy minister and trade representative said on Sunday in an interview with the Polish news agency Onet. According to Taras Kachka, the grain shipments could be carried out “manually” by coordinating each commercial batch of Ukrainian agricultural produce with the Polish authorities before crossing the border. “Under the propped mechanism, Ukrainian exporters would be obliged to submit a request to the local ministry of economy that, in its turn,…

“I would like to separately thank you for your great help and support in creating electoral commissions of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions,” he said Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked members of Russia’s Central Election Commission for their courageous work to organize the vote in the country’s new regions, despite all challenges and threats. “I would like to separately thank you for your great help and support in creating electoral commissions of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, for acting bravely, decisively, despite all the challenges and numerous threats,”…