Day: May 24, 2021

Riyadh, The Saudi Agricultural Investment and Animal Production Company “SALIK”, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) company, stated that its shipment of Australian wheat, weighing 60 thousand tons, set off yesterday from the Australian Port Kembla, to reach the Kingdom in the middle of next month.

In a press statement, the SALIK Group said that its shipment comes within the General Grain Corporation’s tender to purchase 355,000 tons of wheat as part of promotion programme of Saudi investors abroad as one of the Kingdom’s food security programs, which aims to diversify and increase sources of foreign food supplies.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Tabuk, Head of Corporate Environment and Sustainability at the Red Sea Development Company Raed Al-Baseet stressed that the company, through its one-million square meters nursery, seeks to plant more than 15 million plants and saplings to enrich the green cover in the project’s environment, in a bid to realize the Saudi Vision 2030 that stressed the need to preserve and sustain natural resources in the Red Sea Project.

Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), he said that “Environment monitoring is the permanent companion for the Red Sea Project since the planning phases and the initial and current construction phase until completing the scheme, where the company seeks to increase the percentage of seaweeds that absorb carbon dioxide and increase the percentage of mangrove trees and coral reefs, in addition to its endeavors to identify areas with high environmental values, something that the company has already achieved through approving the development of 22 islands out of 90 at the location to make them a tourist destination with a different environmental character.

He added: “We know, since the inception of the project, that this area will become a destination for renewable tourism and that its ecological system is completely sensitive, and to ensure achieving ecological diversity and balance, which we aspire to realize by 2040, we have conducted comprehensive ecological surveys for all the lands of the project, taking into consideration the long-term environmental impacts of the operational actions of the scheme.”

Al-Baseet continued: “The ecological team at the company plays a vital role in most aspects of the project, where its members focus on enhancing the environment through choosing the proper engineering designs and abiding by environmental considerations, whether they are adopted before or after any phase of developing the project, in addition to cooperation with relevant external organizational bodies to guarantee implementing sustainable commitments in the project in a proper way.”

As for ecological initiatives that the company works on, he said that the company has launched an initiative under the motto “Blooming the Red Sea”, which is an initiative that was implemented in cooperation with the National Center for Vegetation Cover and Tabuk University to incubate 17,000 saplings of local plants in the nursery of the project, through which the company trained volunteers of the university students to take care of the saplings until reaching the proper length before, several months later, planting them in the project location.

Al-Baseet noted that the company has also contributed to the Green Saudi Arabia Initiative and Middle East Green Initiative that are concerned with reducing carbon emissions, decreasing noise, achieving ecological balance, providing natural environments and safe havens for organisms and improving natural views, in addition to increasing awareness on the importance of environment and social participation in preserving the environment, where the company, in February, 2020, inaugurated the project’s nursery, which is considered the biggest in the region to plant whatever that can serve the environment of the project, such as proper plants for the environment of the Red Sea and its coasts.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Lyon, Saudi Dr. Amr Abu Khashabah and his fellows at la Croix-Rousse University Hospital in Lyon managed to apply a different way to implant a new lens, a surgery that has not been conducted but to a few dozens of patients worldwide, and was made for a patient who almost lost sight, but it was successful.

This success and excellence at all levels is the biggest headline for Saudi exchange personnel, thanks to the concern and attention of the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to Saudi exchange personnel through providing all innovation and excellence to them.

It is a success story of an innovative idea by a fellowship program exchange member from the King Abdulaziz University in Rabigh Dr. Amr Abdulaal Abu Khashabah who is specialized in retina surgery under the Saudi-French medical program.

The doctor and his fellows at the hospital reached a different way to implant the lens, where Dr. Abu Khashabah applied it himself on the patient. The way is characterized by being fast and needs shorter incision without the need to stitches inside the eye, as well as changing the axis of the lens to reduce the holes.

Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) in Paris, Dr. Abu Khashabah spoke about this new approach saying that “The biggest difference between the old and new method is not needing stitches in the internal wall of the eye, which is stabilized automatically through self-stabilization in a process that does not require a long or big incision rather than a smaller one that can be made in shorter time”.

He added that “The best way to stabilize the lens is not yet agreed upon due to the fact that the lens is still new and has not been applied but on a few cases in France, and the difference that I made was related to changing the angle of the lens from zero to 180 degrees and moving it on an axis of 10 to 15 degrees in a way that facilitates putting it inside the eye through a technical way that reduced the number of holes with the use of the same place of implanting the lens from five holes to three fixed holes that do not change”.

He added that the surgery took some 1.5 hours and included a microscopic test and full inspection of the eye in terms of sight, pressure and images, in addition to ensuring the absence of any factor that restricts the implantation of this lens, such as the separation of retina, noting that the results of these tests made it possible to conduct the surgery through local anesthesia and starting to stabilizing the eye from the outside with a special tool that allows entry to the eye, cleaning it from inside and extracting the previous lens that fell.

He said that “While conducting the surgery, there were some holes in the retina which I treated with laser before entering the front of the eye and making a small incision of two millimeters in the conjunctiva of the cornea to extract the old lens and insert the new one through the cornea before completing the installation without needing any stitches”.

The oculist stressed that the surgery and different way for the lens implantation have received high praise from his French fellows at the hospital and now there are attempts to conduct the surgery on more than one case to fully ensure its effectiveness.

Dr. Abu Khashabah said that the exchange program is one of the most beautiful opportunities to be offered to someone, and the exchange program of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques is among the best in terms of the number of exchanged personnel, which enables them to know about other cultures and learn about their curricula and teaching methods to gain new knowledge and acquire new expertise.

He said that “In France, we had the opportunity to application in early years, which makes exchange programs an excellent opportunity to apply what we have learned of various methods in our precious homeland so that to contribute to the development of the medical sector more and more”.

He also expressed appreciation for the wise leadership for providing this opportunity to Saudi men and women to enable them to develop their capabilities and skills in service of this giving homeland and keep pace with the aspirations of the Saudi Vision 2030.

The oculist also expressed appreciation for the cultural attaché in France, represented by the Saudi-French medical program and the King Abdulaziz University for their belief in their students and for their continuous support and follow-up to develop work mechanisms and methods, in a bid for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to acquire advanced global ranks in the medical sector.

Source: Saudi Press Agency