Saudi Arabia

20 Sep 2022; MEMO: The Head of Saudi state oil giant, Aramco, said on Tuesday Europe's plans to cap energy bills for consumers and tax energy companies were not long-term or helpful solutions for the global energy crisis, spurred largely by underinvestment in hydrocarbons, Reuters reports.

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at the highest rate in 10 years to 7.5 per cent in 2022, with an expected surplus in the state's budget of about 6.3 per cent, according to credit rating agency S&P.

S&P expects the Saudi economy's productive capacity to grow in the long run due to the development of general finances and significant economic reforms.

18 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has announced the discovery of new sites for gold and copper ore deposits in the Madinah region.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Thursday that the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS), represented by the Survey and Mineral Exploration Centre said that the discoveries of gold deposits were within the boundaries of the Aba Al-Raha in the Madinah region.

The SGS also announced the findings of copper ore, located across four sites in the Al-Madiq area in the same region.

14 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has handed a 50-year prison term and a 50-year travel ban to two members of the Huwaitat, a large nomadic Bedouin tribe which lives on both sides of the Saudi-Jordanian border. The men have refused to be displaced from their ancestral homeland to make way for the $500 billion NEOM megacity.

RIYADH, Sept 14 (NNN-SPA) – Under the patronage of Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), the second Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit, organised by SDAIA, kicked off yesterday, under the theme “Artificial Intelligence for the Good of Humanity,” with the participation of more than 10,000 policymakers, specialists and concerned figures with AI.

RIYADH, Sept 13 (NNN-SPA) – Saudi Arabia announced yesterday, three projects in the iron and steel sector, with a value of 35 billion Saudi riyals (9.3 billion U.S. dollars).

The kingdom is working with local and international investors, to establish a variety of investment opportunities in the sector, announced Bandar Al-Khorayef, Saudi minister of industry and mineral resources, at the second edition of the Saudi International Iron and Steel Conference.

RIYADH, Sept 11 (NNN-SPA) – The International Conference on the Future of the Desalination Industry, organised by Saline Water Conversion Corporation, kicks off today and will end on Sept 13.

Taking place in Riyadh, it is participated by policy makers, innovators, financiers, marketeers, operators, contractors, developers and technology suppliers around the world.

120 local and international speakers, including water ministers from different countries of the world, will participate in the conference.

RIYADH, Sept 8 (NNN-SPA) – The Saudi Arabian energy minister said, the decision of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, to reduce oil production, is aimed to promote market stability.

The decision showed that the organisation was attentive, pre-emptive and proactive in supporting the market’s stability, to the benefit of the industry, Abdulaziz bin Salman was quoted as saying.

06 Sep 2022; MEMO: Gulf Arab states have demanded that US streaming giant, Netflix, remove content deemed offensive to "Islamic and societal values" in the region, Saudi Arabia's media regulator said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

It did not specify the content but mentioned that it included content aimed at children. Saudi state-run Al Ekhbariya TV, in a programme discussing the issue, showed blurred-out animation clips that appeared to show two girls embracing.

02 September 2022; MEMO: A Saudi app that lets ordinary people "play the role of a police officer" may have alerted authorities to the tweets of a student whose sentencing to 34 years in jail has drawn international condemnation.

Just weeks after the verdict against Salma Al-Shehab – a doctoral candidate at Britain's Leeds University – rights groups say another woman was given a 45-year sentence for her social media posts – highlighting a crackdown targeting women online.