RIYADH: The Transport General Authority has announced the seizure of many foreign trucks found violating transportation regulations and legislation while transporting goods between cities in the Kingdom.
This initiative, undertaken in collaboration with relevant authorities, reflects the authority’s commitment to regulating the sector, promoting compliance, ensuring fair competition, enhancing the security and safety of transportation services, and preserving public resources and road infrastructure.
The authority said that the mechanism adopted to control foreign truck transport operations — in coordination with various government entities — prohibits traders, factories, importers, institutions and companies from contracting with non-Saudi vehicles.
Foreign trucks are restricted to transporting goods from abroad to designated delivery points in Saudi cities or on their way back to their country of origin. This return must originate from the same delivery point or from any city along the return route. Such operations also require a permit issued by the authority.

RIYADH: The Saudi Heritage Commission, in collaboration with King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language, or KSGAAL, launched the Naqsh blog on Thursday on the sidelines of the Saudi International Handicrafts Week exhibition.

The Naqsh blog aims to preserve Arab cultural and linguistic heritage, providing a reliable source for researchers and those interested in archaeology, history, the Arabic language and comparative studies, an official statement said.

The blog also seeks to enhance the scientific reference for trustworthy Arabic data and develop AI models for analyzing and interpreting inscriptions, in alignment with the objectives of the Human Capital Development Program, one of the Saudi Vision 2030 initiatives, and the National Culture Strategy.

Abdullah Al-Washmi, secretary-general of KSGAAL, said that the path of linguistic blogs served related scholars and researchers and was an integral part of the academy’s linguistic work, projects and institutional initiatives.

Naqsh is a visually documented linguistic blog for Arabic inscriptions found on stones, tablets, rocks or any other artifacts in the Kingdom.

The blog includes commemorative, religious, literary and commercial inscriptions that reflect the cultural and social conditions throughout the ages, he said.

The blog highlights the historical and linguistic significance of Arabic inscriptions, understanding the linguistic and cultural development in the region, and also serves as a crucial source for studying the evolution of writing and Arabic calligraphy through the ages, he said.

In early 2024, KSGAAL launched the “Falak” platform for linguistic databases, which includes several linguistic platforms featuring advanced computational tools.

These tools facilitate text analysis and linguistic data tagging and enable Arabic language enthusiasts to collaborate in the field of Arabic language computing.

The “Falak” platform also aims to enhance the scientific reference for reliable Arabic linguistic data. It is one of the academy’s prominent initiatives in the field of linguistic computing, containing more than 1.5 billion words.

Sami Al-Mukhayzim, chairman of the Saudi Historical Society, told Arab News that the Naqsh blog serves as a highly significant historical resource.

Inscriptions are among the oldest tools documenting vivid and accurate information about ancient civilizations. These inscriptions contribute to illustrating the development of writing, ideas, beliefs and the daily interactions of those civilizations, he said.

Abdullah Al-Khuzam, a craft trainer at the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts, said that documenting human heritage was one of the fundamental administrative and civilizational methods and an essential enabler for building a growing future grounded in a distinctive historical and archaeological depth.

The Naqsh blog will serve as a reference for future generations, providing them with a foundation as they venture into new and contemporary horizons, drawing inspiration from heritage to develop ideas in a modern form that suits today’s world, he said.