Category: General

Jeddah– Dr. Bandar Al Fihaid, President of the Arab Tourism Organization (ATO) disclosed today that the revenues of the medical and recovery tourism throughout the world is estimated at nearly $100 billion annually and expected to double over the next ten years.

In a report, he said the size of Arab tourists expenditure amounts to nearly $30 billion, indicating the importance of this pattern to get it developed in the Arab region and benefit from its impacts on the economy and investment.

Speaking on the eve of the 7th World Medical Tourism Summit scheduled for Amman, Jordan, from 23 – 24 July, 2022, Dr. Al Fihaid said more than 60 experts and specialists in the field of medical and recovery tourism representing 20 Arab and world countries are expected to take part in the event.

Highlighting the fundamentals of such kind of tourism, he said the Arab world is characterized by the availability of natural fundamentals including mineral-rich hot fountains and sea water in addition to advanced medical centers equipped with medical and scientific skilled personnel in this field.

Recently, a number of Arab countries have put long-run strategies and plans to lay the necessary foundations for a state-of-the-art medical and recovery tourism, he said, citing Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and UAE.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh– Manga Productions, a subsidiary company of Mohammed bin Salman “MiSK” Foundation, which produces animation, video games and storyboards, has announced the transfer of its headquarters to Prince Mohammed bin Salman Non-Profit City , scheduled to be opened in 2024.

The step will create a new media sector in the city, to support its endeavors to hone the skills of a new generation of creative Saudi talents, and enable bright and young minds to live, learn, participate and thrive.

Manga Productions Company will benefit from the City’s oriented approach to supporting international collaborations, which presents opportunities for new partnerships with innovators around the world.

The company will also be a favorite destination for young Saudi talents to explore its distinguished services, and seize the valuable opportunities it offers in the world of creativity as it designs and establishes workshops in the City to provide an educational program in the media and creative content sector to educate, empower and inspire Saudi youth.

CEO of Manga Production Dr. Essam Bukhari has explained that the company aims to inspire “future heroes”, highlighting that the new headquarters in Prince Mohammed bin Salman Non-Profit City will enable them to promote the dissemination of a culture of creativity among young people, create opportunities and inspire creative minds in this sector, in addition to hone the skills of ambitious Saudi youth.

For his part, CEO of Prince Mohammed bin Salman Non-Profit City David Henry, confirmed that the new headquarters of “Manga Productions” comes in line with the City’s vision to be an advanced digital metropolis centered on people, that puts Saudi youths at the center of its priorities, and the city’s goals will support the Kingdom’s 2030 vision to hone the skills of Saudi youths, give them promising opportunities, and inspire them to achieve their creative aspirations, in addition to attracting global talent.

Manga Productions is a leading company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the media and creative content sector, and it works to formulate inspirational and positive content targeting many segments of society locally and globally, as the company produced the first Saudi-Japanese animated film: The Journey” in partnership with Toei Animation, one of the oldest and the most famous Japanese production studio.

The Journey movie has crowned a defining moment for the creative sector in the Kingdom, and introduced the global audience to the authenticity of Saudi culture and the historical stories of the Arabian Peninsula.

Manga Productions will provide Prince Mohammed bin Salman Non-Profit City with its multiple innovations, which combine the creative sector and academic knowledge to support the economic and social development march in the Kingdom, in addition to enhancing academic and industrial partnership, as well as the social development.

It worth mentioning that Prince Mohammed bin Salman Non-Profit City is located in Erqa district along Wadi Hanifa and extends over an area of 3.4 square kilometers.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh– The Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC) for the handling and processing of all waste within the authority’s jurisdiction. The agreement also covers future cooperation between DGDA and SIRC on research, investment opportunities, deployment of solutions, operations, and management.

The MoU was signed by the Chief Executive Officer of DGDA, Jerry Inzerillo, and his SIRC counterpart Eng. Ziyad bin Mohammed Al-Shiha

Under the scope of the MoU, DGDA, and SIRC will collaborate on citywide waste management solutions that adhere to world-class Practices for handling, recycling, and disposing of all kinds of waste. This will be done through using cutting-edge, efficient technologies, cooperating on technical and investigative studies, and knowledge and skill-sharing workshops.

Jerry Inzerillo stated that the partnership with SIRC reflects DGDA’s commitment to achieving environmental sustainability, maximizing returns on investment in waste management, and taking all the necessary measures to ensure the quality-of-life standards set in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and meet the satisfaction of Diriyah’s community. He highlighted that this was especially important given the city’s importance as the cradle of the First Saudi State and the Arab Capital of Culture for 2030.

Eng. Shiha expressed his pleasure with the signing of the MoU, which sets a framework for collaboration and sharing administrative functions, investment opportunities, and technical expertise between both parties, saying that the agreement would help explore ways to diversify sources of revenue in the recycling sector.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Kuwait– Kuwait has expressed its condemnation and denunciation of the terrorist attack that targeted the Iraqi police forces in Salah al-Din Governorate, Iraq, which resulted in the death and injury of a number of police officers.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed, in a statement today, that Kuwait stands by Iraq, supporting all the measures it takes to preserve its security and confront terrorism, offering, at the same time, the condolences to the Government and people of Iraq and to the families of the victims, and wished a speedy recovery for the injured.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Hajjah, Yemen– The mobile medical clinics of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) have continued providing treatment services to the beneficiaries in Hajjah Governorate, Yemen.

During June 2022, the clinics received 2,021 individuals with various health conditions, and provided them with the necessary medical services.

The clinics also provided 1,005 individuals with medications.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

New York– The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s delegation to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) concluded its participation at the event with a call to the international community to become a unified force in the pursuit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Kingdom’s delegation led by the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), included representatives from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the Ministry of Environment, Water & Agriculture, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and the General Authority for Statistics.

Over the course of the forum, the Kingdom’s delegation participated in several sessions on the efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with wide participation from governmental, private, non-profit, research centers and international organizations. The discussion sessions focused on 5 of the sustainable development goals: Quality Education, Gender Equality, Life Underwater, Life on Land, and Partnerships to Achieve Goals.

Speaking at the conclusion of the event, Deputy Minister for Policies and Economic Planning Ayman Afghani said: “The discussions we have had, and the dialogues we have held with our partners at the HLPF have yielded an unequivocal consensus: working together is infinitely better than working alone in our pursuit of sustainable development.”

“As the global COVID-19 recovery effort continues, we must make it our mission to catalyse collaboration and collectively pave the way towards a more sustainable future for all.”

Afghani added: “The message from Saudi Arabia to the international community is clear: we remain committed to working together, contributing to global progress, and helping to achieve our shared goals.”

Additionally, a number of bilateral meetings were held with the heads of a number of international organizations and UN member states to share best practices and discuss aspects of cooperation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

During the HLPF in New York, the Kingdom hosted a side event titled “Saudi Arabia’s Efforts Towards Achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda” to highlight the progress the country is making in the SDGs – with particular emphasis on the SDGs in the spotlight at this year’s forum: SDG4, SDG5, SDG14, SDG15 and SDG17.

The side event heard from delegates how the Saudi government is investing heavily in enhancing its education ecosystem to achieve SDG4 (quality education) and how the Kingdom’s broad program of gender reforms have been recognised globally for affecting rapid and substantial improvement on the SDG5 (gender equality) metric.

Delegates then moved on to explain how the implantation of the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI) is aiming to drastically reduce carbon emissions, protect Saudi’s aquamarine life and preserve its natural biodiversity as the Kingdom pursues the objectives of both SDG14 (life below water) and SDG15 (life on land).

The side event concluded with delegates agreeing that truly impactful sustainable development is not possible without commitments by international partners to work together and join forces to deliver a collaborative and coordinated response to the uncertain socioeconomic conditions emerging across the world today.

The 2022 edition of the HLPF arrives with tremendous momentum behind Saudi’s socioeconomic transformation being driven by Saudi Vision 2030, which finds natural synergies with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The HLPF is the United Nations main platform for following-up and assessing the progress that has been made by countries across the 17 SDGs. The HLPF is held at the UN’s Headquarters in New York City and organized by the UN Economic and Social Council, with government entities, private sector organizations, non-profits and think tanks participating every year in the forum.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Seoul– Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, participated today in the international ministerial meeting on the fight against COVID-19 entitled “Global Action Plan”, at the invitation of the United States of America and Japan, via visual communication technology.

The ministerial meeting complements the strengthening of international coordination in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably during the Kingdom’s chairmanship of the Group of 20 (G20) in the year 2020, where Saudi Arabia called for the consolidation of international efforts to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the global economy, and the Kingdom’s call for an extraordinary summit of the leaders of the G20 countries and a number of international organizations to coordinate an international response to the coronavirus.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh– The Saudi National Squash Team will start its participation in the Arab International Squash Championship for Juniors, which will be held on the stadiums of Palm Hills, in Cairo, Egypt, during the period from 21 to 28 July 2022, with the participation of more than 15 countries.

Head of the mission, Khaled Al-Saad, said that the Saudi team held a preparatory camp in the Arab Republic of Egypt for two weeks in preparation for the championship.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Beirut– The Ambulance Service of Subul Al-Salam Social Society in Miniyeh Region, Northern Lebanon, carried out 34 emergency missions during the last week, funded by King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief).

The missions included transporting patients to and from hospitals, and providing ambulance services to those injured in traffic accidents in the city of Miniyeh.

This falls within the framework of the project to support services and ambulance transport in the refugee areas.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Jeddah– The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has sent a cable of condolences to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, on the death of Sheikha Mathayel bint Ali bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

In his cable, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques said: “We have been informed about the news of the death of Her Highness Sheikha Mathayel bint Ali bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and as we send to Your Majesty and the family of the deceased our deepest and most sincere condolences, we pray to Allah Almighty to bestow his mercy on her soul, and may He protects you from all evil, we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.”

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh– Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for the Arab States Dr. Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf has condemned the killing and wounding of eight members of the Iraqi Federal Police forces in clashes with Daesh terrorist elements in the Mutaibija area, east of Saladin Governorate in the northern parts of the Republic of Iraq.

The Secretary General affirmed the GCC states’ solidarity and support to the Republic of Iraq to confront violence, extremism and terrorism, stressing the total rejection of these terrorist acts, which are inconsistent with religious and humanitarian principles and moral values.

Dr. Al-Hajraf offered his sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the deceased and to the Iraqi government and people.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Hajjah – Saada– King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) continued the implementation of the water supply and environmental sanitation project in Hajjah and Saada Governorates, in Yemen.

During June 2022, 12,910,000 liters of non-drinking water, 2,184,500 liters of drinking water were pumped, and 219 shifts dedicated to removing waste from the camps of the displaced were carried out in Hajjah Governorate, Yemen.

Also, 400,000 liters of drinking water, and 160,000 liters of non-drinking water were pumped in Saada Governorate, Yemen, benefiting 44,757 individuals.

Source: Saudi Press Agency