Month: September 2022

Riyadh– The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) in partnership with the Emirate of Makkah Province has officially launched the new Gate 9 expansion at Jeddah Islamic Port after the rehabilitation of Aramco Refinery’s western road as per local and global best practices, which is set to enhance the port’s operational efficiency using sustainable development standards, while offering best-in-class services to improve the customer experience.

The SAR17.5 million expansion and development project will play a major role in raising the average truck exit rate from 3,600 to 8,000 vehicles per day, as well as shorten the transition time between Jeddah Islamic Port and Al Khumra Warehouse City from 40 to 25 minutes. The route remains accessible around the clock, enabling trucks to swiftly enter and exit through four lanes equipped with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.

With the support from HRH Prince Faisal bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Governor of Makkah Province and HRH Prince Badr bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Governor of Makkah Province, Mawani and the Ministry of Transport and Logistic Services have established an operational plan to develop business, expand the gate, and rehabilitate the road all the way to its intersection with King Faisal Road in Jeddah, and develop it according to the best local and international standards.

Mawani has joined forces with its partners from the public and private sectors to modernize ports’ infrastructure in the Kingdom and scale up its overall efficiency to achieve sustainability, digitalization, and innovation, which helps in maintaining a safe and smooth functioning of supply chain activities and provides means to diversify the sources of the national economy, in line with the objectives of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy (NTLS) to enhance the competitiveness of Saudi ports and reinforce their position as a global logistics hub.

Mawani has revamped key roads within Jeddah Islamic Port spanning 2000 meters, which include the expansion of Road 35 from 3 to 5 lanes, to offer world-class logistics solutions, boost local supply chains, bolster economic development, and facilitate transportation to warehouses in record time.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh– The Combined Task Force (CTF) 150, which is currently led by the Royal Saudi Navy Forces, carried out an interception and search operation of a boat in the Gulf of Oman through the USCGC Glen Harris. The CTF 150 seized and confiscated 3,330 kg of hashish and heroin.

The Royal Saudi Navy Forces Command took over these tasks for the first time from the British Royal Navy on July 30, 2018 and for the second time from its French counterpart in August 2020. In addition to today’s operation, the Saudi forces carried out six operations.

The first operation was carried out in October 2020, in which more than 450 kg of methamphetamine, known as “crystal meth”, were seized. In November 2020, two operations were carried out, including an interception of a boat carrying 1,579 kilograms of hashish in addition to an interception of a boat and confiscation of 456 kilograms of the narcotic “Crystal meth” as well as 364 kilograms of heroin.

In December 2020, two operations were carried out. In the first operation, 910 kilograms of hashish was seized, while the forces intercepted and confiscated, in the second operation, 182 kilograms of methamphetamine, in addition to 272 kilograms of heroin in international waters in the Arabian Sea.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Pakistani health officials on Thursday reported an outbreak of waterborne diseases in areas hit by recent record-breaking flooding, as authorities stepped up efforts to ensure the provision of clean drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes in the disaster.

Diarrhea, skin diseases and eye infections are spreading at relief camps set up by the government across the country. More than 90,000 diarrhea cases were reported from one of the worst-hit provinces, Sindh, in the past 24 hours, according to a report released by the health officials.

The latest development comes a day after Pakistan and the World Health Organization raised concern over the spread of waterborne diseases among flood victims. Pakistan blames climate change for unusually early and heavy monsoon rains, which since June have caused flash floods that have killed 1,191 people and affected 33 million people. About a million homes have also been damaged or destroyed.

Floodwaters continued to recede in most of the country, but many districts in southern Sindh province remained underwater.

Nearly half a million flood-displaced people are living in relief camps. In Sindh province, thousands of medical camps have been set up in flood-stricken areas to treat victims, said Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, the provincial health minister. Mobile medical units have also been deployed. The World Health Organization says it is increasing surveillance for acute diarrhea, cholera and other communicable diseases and providing medical supplies to health facilities.

Doctors say initially they were initially seeing mostly patients traumatized by the flooding but are now treating thousands of people suffering from diarrhea, skin infections and other waterborne ailments. Many pregnant women living in flood-affected areas were also exposed to risks.

According to the U.N. Population Fund, 6.4 million flood victims in Pakistan need humanitarian assistance. It said about 650,000 pregnant women in flood-affected areas, including 73,000 expected to deliver in the next month, need maternal health services.

Meanwhile, rescuers, backed by the military, continued operations to evacuate marooned people to safer places. Rescuers are mostly using boats, but helicopters are also flying to evacuate stranded people from those areas where bridges and roads were destroyed, making it difficult to evacuate people and deliver food to them.

Days ago, Pakistan and the United Nations issued an appeal for $160 million in emergency funding to Pakistan. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday took to Twitter, thanking the United Arab Emirates for delivering the first tranche of relief goods worth $50 million. He also thanked the United States for announcing $30 million in aid.

So far, several countries, including Turkey, China, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, have sent planeloads of aid to flood victims in Pakistan. According to initial government estimates, the devastation caused $10 billion in damages.

Source: Voice of America

Jeddah– The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has sent a cable of congratulation to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques expressed his best felicitations and wished the President constant good health and happiness and the government and people of the Republic of Uzbekistan steady progress and prosperity.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh– Saudi Stock Exchange’s main index (TASE) ended trading lower today, losing 140.68 points, to close at 12,142.65 points.

The total value of the trading reported was SAR 6.8 billion, while the toll of shares traded was 162 million, divided into over 382,000 deals.

The Saudi Parallel Market Index (NOMU) ended the day losing 310.84 points, to close at 21,326.76 points, with a valuation of SAR 23,4 million and an overall tally of more than 362,000 stocks traded and divided into as many as 2,099 deals.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh– stc Group provided more than 5,000 computers to empower the non-profit organizations. The number of devices provided to “Irtiqaa” reached 5290 computers. The project’s outputs benefited 68 non-profit organizations in the Kingdom.

Through this pioneering project, stc Group seeks to actively contribute to the development and empowerment of non-profit organizations and individuals mostly in need, as the group recognizes the importance of balancing development paths between social, economic and environmental sustainability, which reflects its sustainability strategy. The group is committed to enriching communities’ lives and experiences by providing high-quality and efficient digital communications products and services.

The group periodically worked on its inventory, inspected, and technically treated redundant computers and accessories. It recycled and disposed, in an environmentally safe manner all its devises, to achieve optimal benefit to the educational, and health, sectors as well as the benefit of NGOs and the local society.

stc group aims to provide an opportunity to its customers by contributing their own computers to charitable organizations, through donating their devices to stc customer care offices.

It is worth mentioning that stc launched 5 batches among this project since inception during 2018 and the agreement has been renewed during 2021 for the 3 additional years.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Al-Dhale– King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) distributed on Tuesday 304 tons and 950 kilograms of food baskets to the needy people in Al-Dhale Governorate, Yemen, benefiting 17,100 people.

This comes within the project to support food security for the year 2022, being implemented by the KSrelief in Yemen, and aims to distribute more than 192,000 food baskets weighing more than 20,000 tons to the needy and affected families in 15 Yemeni governorates.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh– The Saudi-Uruguayan Parliamentary Friendship Committee of the Shura Council held a meeting here today, chaired by Member of the Shura Council and Chairman of the Committee Dr. Ibrahim bin Mahmoud Al-Nahhas with Ambassador of Eastern Republic of Uruguay to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Nelson Yemil Chaben.

During the meeting, they discussed a number of issues of common interest between the two countries to contribute to strengthening the bilateral relations between them in various fields, especially the parliamentary relations between the Shura Council and the Uruguayan Parliament.

The two sides stressed the importance of joint bilateral work between the two countries in various fields and at all levels, looking forward at the same time to increasing cooperation between them to achieve the common interests of both countries.

Source: Saudi Press Agency