Saudi Arabia announces vital developmental projects in Yemen – Arab News

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RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has announced a number of vital developmental projects in Yemen to bolster the economy, the Kingdom’s deputy defense minister said on Thursday.
“The initiatives include 17 development projects in 6 sectors, valued at $400 million, in addition to $200 million in oil derivatives for power stations,” Prince Khalid bin Salman tweeted.
The projects will be carried out by the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen and aim to help the Yemeni people.
Prince Khalid met with the President of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi and members of the council to convey the Kingdom’s support and appreciation for their efforts.
The deputy defense minister said Saudi Arabia is committed to alleviating the suffering in Yemen and achieving security, peace, stability, and economic development.
CAPE VERDE, Praia: The Republic of Cape Verde has given its backing to Saudi Arabia’s bid to host Expo 2030 in Riyadh.
Cape Verde’s President Jose Maria Neves announced the support during a meeting with Saudi Advisor at the Royal Court Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Qattan in the capital Praia.
The republic’s Foreign Minister Rui Alberto de Figueiredo Soares reiterated the support during a press conference, held after talks with Qattan.  
The republic also extended its backing to the Kingdom’s efforts to hold the first Saudi-African Summit and the 5th Arab-African Summit, according to a statement published on the Saudi State Agency (SPA).
On behalf of Saudi Arabia, Qattan thanked the officials for their country’s support, which reflected the solid ties between both countries.
Earlier on Saturday, Qattan held talks with Neves and other senior officials in Cape Verde that reviewed bilateral relations and discussed ways to enhance cooperation in various fields to serve common interests.
They also reviewed the latest regional and international developments, and issues of common interest.
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will host the 25th meeting of the ministers of Municipal Affairs in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in Riyadh, state news agency (SPA) reported.
The meeting will be held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Saudi Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing Majid bin Abdullah Al-Hogail.
“The meetings come within the framework of the continuous efforts to achieve the GCC goals to enhance the municipal sectors and to raise the efficiency and quality of services provided to citizens and guests of the GCC countries,” read the SPA statement.
The ministers will also discuss issues related to the GCC joint municipal action strategy.
 
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia may be famous for its infinitely flowing sand dunes and jagged mountain ranges, but it is also host to a lesser-known and altogether different environment — one that is cool, silent, kaleidoscopic and teeming with animal and plant life.
This is the underwater world of the Kingdom’s coastal zone, which is rapidly emerging as a global scuba diving destination, with a concurrent surge in the number of Saudi divers.
But for all its wonder and beauty, diving without proper training can be dangerous and even fatal.
PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, a global organization based in California, provides training and certification, and has been active in the Kingdom for decades.
Raul Ausemestre, a Riyadh-based PADI master instructor with 20 years’ diving experience, explains the certification process.
“The first part is the knowledge review, which is the theory aspect,” he told Arab News. “It’s composed of nine chapters with a test at the end, which is either manual or online.
• The total cost of training and certification is between SR2,000 and SR3,000.
• The Kingdom’s scuba diving scene has been transformed by recent social reforms enabling Saudi women to dive without restrictions.
“Then you are qualified to progress to the confined water training in a swimming pool, where you learn a total of 24 skills, including how to assemble your dive gear, familiarization with the breathing regulator, gear removal and so on.

“Once you’ve completed the confined water training, then you go to the actual open water training and testing, either in Jeddah on the west coast or Alkhobar in the Eastern Province. This consists of four dives over two days, again practicing those 24 skills, at less than 60 feet of depth.
“There’s a formula as to how many minutes you can stay at a certain depth, and you have to follow the limit to avoid decompression sickness (also called the bends). If you go too deep and come up too fast, there is a danger of air bubbles forming in your blood or even in your brain, which is potentially deadly. These days the calculations are automated on a dive computer, which you wear on your wrist like a watch.”  
The total cost of training and certification is between SR2,000 and SR3,000 ($500-$750).
All the gear, including bodysuit, oxygen tank, breathing regulator, mask and fins, can set you back over SR4,000, but it is all available for hire at any of the numerous dive centers that have popped up in recent years.
The Kingdom’s scuba diving scene has been transformed by recent social reforms enabling Saudi women to dive without restrictions. This has been a boon for Noura, who declines to give her surname.
“I have been fascinated by scuba diving since childhood because several of my family members were qualified divers,” Noura told Arab News. “Plus I’ve always enjoyed swimming and snorkeling, so diving was the natural progression.
“I got my diving certification in 2016, but until a couple of years ago I couldn’t go out on a boat without a male companion — brother or father or husband — so I was restricted to diving from land. That was quite frustrating for me as I wanted to go and see some of the wrecks and coral reefs further off the coast. Now I’m free to do all that.
“My most amazing experience as a diver was in Jeddah. I went diving with a buddy and there was nobody else in the water. It was octopus mating season, and this was the first time I had ever seen any octopus in its natural habitat. There were two of them doing a dance and changing colors. It was a mesmerizing showcase of what they could do with their bodies, and a unique moment we were witnessing.”
Saudi Arabia so far has been spared the mass tourism that has scarred the coastlines of Egypt and most Mediterranean countries, and its coastal waters remain clear, with many pristine marine environments.
Reefs in the vicinity of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, and around the Farasan islands further south, are especially spectacular, with multicolored coral and an abundance of marine species, including sharks that are for the most part benign, scorpion fish, manta rays and even the occasional whale.
Diving in the Kingdom serves a more serious purpose as well. A team of marine archaeologists is now excavating an 18th-century Red Sea shipwreck of Egyptian origin with a hoard of about 2,000 ceramic tableware objects, while Ausemestre has led a group of geologists on a survey of the underwater landscape, and the life it contains, near Saudi Arabia’s border with Jordan.
But this spike in undersea human activity brings with it a risk of damage to the sensitive fabric of marine life, threatening the very qualities that make Saudi Arabia unique as a diving destination.
Medylene Ocampo — who did not even know how to swim when she came to the Kingdom from her native Philippines and went on to become a dive coordinator with Riyadh-based RDA Divenet (a PADI-qualified training organization) — cautions that the expected explosion in tourism in Saudi Arabia could imperil its marine ecosystems.
“Just touching or stepping on a coral growth could potentially destroy it and a lot of novice divers don’t understand that,” Ocampo told Arab News. “There’s a bright future for tourism of all kinds in the Kingdom, but that must come with an advocacy to care for the ocean.”
“It’s great to see the growth in interest in diving,” said Noura, “but I also want to see more protection of the marine environment.”
She described the growth in the number of people interested in the sport as “a beautiful thing” that is also helping in terms of caring for the underwater world.
“Scuba divers are invested in that world,” she said.
 
JEDDAH: Yanbu Industrial City has been recognized by the UN’s top cultural body for its commitment to lifelong learning for its residents.
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently announced Yanbu Industrial City’s admittance into its Global Network of Learning Cities.
Learning cities, according to UNESCO, “foster a culture of learning throughout life, enhance quality and excellence in learning, and effectively mobilize resources in every sector to promote inclusive learning, from basic to higher education.”
Yanbu Industrial City, one of the Kingdom’s largest industrial cities, is home to the largest port on the Red Sea and the fourth-largest crude oil refinery in the world.
Learning cities, according to UNESCO, ‘foster a culture of learning throughout life, enhance quality and excellence in learning, and effectively mobilize resources in every sector to promote inclusive learning, from basic to higher education.’
Yanbu has become the Kingdom’s second city to be approved by UNESCO for its outstanding educational efforts.
In September 2020, Jubail Industrial City was recognized by the UN body for its commitment to lifelong learning for its residents, and for introducing policies that promote inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable development.
The CEO of the Royal Commission in Yanbu, Fahad bin Dhaifallah Al-Qurashi, commented on the latest recognition: “We believe that adopting and applying the concept of a learning city will enhance the city’s position and assist in the sustainable development as well as the economic, cultural and social prosperity.”
The Global Network of Learning Cities includes 294 cities from around the world that share inspiration, know-how and best practices with each other.
UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay said that more than half of the global population lives in urban areas. “Cities have the power to drive lifelong learning policies by implementing and supporting local initiatives and bringing a bottom-up change,” said Azoulay on UNESCO’s website.
Seventy-seven cities from 44 countries have joined UNESCO’s Global Network of Learning Cities. Sixteen are in Africa, nine cities are in the Arab states, 13 are found in the rest of Asia and the Pacific, 26 of the cities are in Europe and North America, with the remaining 13 other cities found in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 
 
 
RIYADH: Six ambassadors to Saudi Arabia on Saturday visited the International Saudi Falcons and Hunting Exhibition organized by the Saudi Falcons Club at its headquarters in Malham, north of Riyadh.
They included the UAE’s Ambassador Sheikh Nahyan bin Saif Al-Nahyan, Qatar’s Ambassador Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah, Algeria’s Ambassador Mohammed Ali Boughazi, Tajikistan’s Ambassador Akram Karimi, Spain’s Ambassador Jorge Hevia and South Africa’s Ambassador Mogobo David Magabe.
The ambassadors toured the exhibition, which includes more than 25 pavilions. They were briefed on the Saudi Falcons Club’s efforts to preserve Saudi cultural heritage, raise environmental awareness and ensure the continuation of falconry as a hobby.
The ambassadors were also briefed on the area designated for falcon farms, where an international auction was held in conjunction with the exhibition, with the participation of over 40 leading farms from 17 countries.
The ambassadors were also briefed on the area designated for falcon farms, where an international auction was held in conjunction with the exhibition, with the participation of over 40 leading farms from 17 countries.
They were also given a tour of the arms pavilion, which includes seven Saudi companies representing 55 international brands, as well as the Shaleel Digital Museum, the local market and several other exhibitions in photography, cooking and plastic arts.
Earlier, Kuwaiti Ambassador Sheikh Ali Al-Khaled Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Portuguese Ambassador Nuno Matias, Japanese Ambassador Fumio Iwai and South Korean Ambassador Park Joon-yong also visited the exhibition.
This year, the exhibition also hosted Jordan’s Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature for the first time. The pavilion showcased Jordanian methods of regulating hunting and training falcons with the aim of informing visitors on the society’s objectives in raising environmental awareness and protecting falcons from overhunting.
The King Salman bin Abdulaziz Royal Reserve Development Authority also participated in the exhibition to highlight the importance of falcons’ role in maintaining ecological balance and introduce visitors to the reserve’s antiquities, terrain and vegetation cover.
 

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