Saudi Arabia needs private investments to keep logistics on the move: NIDLP CEO

Saudi Arabia's Jeddah port (Shutterstock)
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Updated 14 June 2022
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Saudi Arabia needs private investments to keep logistics on the move: NIDLP CEO

RIYADH: “Saudi Arabia’s logistics sector needs a huge investment combined between the government and private sector by 2030, as Vision 2030 targets to become a global logistic hub,” said Sulaiman Al-Mazroua, CEO of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program.

During an exclusive interview with Arab News, Al-Mazroua said that upgrading the existing ports will help the Kingdom serve three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe. He added that the Kingdom would provide the right environment and regulations to attract world transportation companies which will help Saudi Arabia emerge as one of the world’s busiest logistics centers.

He added: “We still need more upgrading to some of our facilities, including our airports and ports.” 




Suliman Al-Mazroua, CEO of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program. (AN)

The vitality of SMEs

Al-Mazroua added that small and medium enterprises in the Kingdom should develop innovative technological ideas to fill gaps in logistics. 

He noted that tapping into cutting-edge technologies is necessary to achieve the Vision 2030 goal of becoming an industrial powerhouse and global logistics hub.

“This area (technology) in logistics, specifically, is very attractive to small and medium businesses, and innovation in that area is extremely open. So with more SMEs coming in to fill gaps in logistics, you will need less time and cost to produce. And whenever there’s competition, innovation comes to play,” Al-Mazroua told Arab News.

We will be capitalizing on our smart youth

Suliman Al-Mazroua, CEO of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program

Prime Movers of Logistics

He also noted that  Saudi Arabia is capitalizing on its youth to revolutionize the sector, in addition to cooperating with private companies.

“We will be capitalizing on our smart and capable youth. And our government will enable this logistic hub with the infrastructure requirements. The private sector be an important partner with its technologies. We have seen Apple and Amazon come up with own their technologies. We also have major Saudi companies in the technology field developing their own.”

Strategic Location for A Global Logistics Hub

According to Al-Mazroua, Saudi Arabia’s geographical location is a crucial factor that could elevate the country’s spot on the logistics map in the future.

The Kingdom lies in a strategic location between the three continents, on the coast of the Red Sea, where more than 13 percent of the world’s logistic traffic passes yearly

Talking about the plans to transform the Kingdom into a top global logistics hub, he said, “Privatization of the ports with free zones will attract the right investments, build the right regulations and policies for investors to come and get connected with the world through trade agreements. So that is just a summary of our plans guided by Vision 2030, an ambitious yet achievable blueprint for our future.”


Municipalities Ministry launches home delivery permit service, effective July 1

Updated 21 sec ago
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Municipalities Ministry launches home delivery permit service, effective July 1

  • Municipalities will carry out field inspections to ensure compliance and will take regulatory action against violators

RIYADH: The Saudi Ministry of Municipalities and Housing launched the Home Delivery Permit service for food and non-food delivery establishments via the Balady platform, Saudi Press Agency reported Tuesday.

This initiative supports ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of life and elevate safety and compliance standards within the delivery sector across the Kingdom.

The delivery service aims to regulate delivery operations within cities by ensuring establishments comply with health and technical requirements, thereby contributing to a safe and efficient environment that enhances consumer confidence.

The requirements for the permit include obtaining a health certificate for all home delivery service workers, securing approval from the authority supervising the commercial activity, clearly displaying the establishment’s name or trademark on delivery vehicles, and ensuring these vehicles comply with the technical and health standards necessary for safe product transportation.

The ministry explained that mandatory enforcement of license issuance will begin on July 1, 2025.

Municipalities will carry out field inspections to ensure compliance and will take regulatory action against violators.

Business owners can apply for the home delivery permit through the Balady platform by visiting: https://balady.gov.sa/en/services/issue-home-delivery-permit.

This initiative is part of the ministry’s broader efforts to develop the regulatory framework for the services sector and to ensure the provision of safe delivery services, in line with the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030.

Last month, the ministry announced the launch of the Balady Plus app — an intelligent platform aimed at enhancing quality of life in Saudi cities and facilitating daily mobility for residents and visitors.

According to the ministry, Balady Plus was developed by national talents to be more than just a navigation tool. It offers an interactive 3D map experience with precise local content that reflects the real landscape of Saudi cities and adapts to their changes in real time.

The application features smart mobility services, including live updates on roads, locations, and services. It also supports indoor navigation in commercial centers, alerts users about speed bumps, obstacles, and road closures, and integrates data from government entities and the local community.


Qatar records $137m budget deficit in Q1, ending 3-year surplus streak

Updated 2 min 16 sec ago
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Qatar records $137m budget deficit in Q1, ending 3-year surplus streak

RIYADH: Qatar posted its first budget deficit in more than three years — a 500 million Qatari riyal ($137 million) shortfall in the first quarter of 2025, the Ministry of Finance reported. 

Ministry figures show the same period last year registered a 2.06-billion-riyal surplus. 

This comes as Doha undertakes a cautious fiscal recalibration mid-way through its Third National Development Strategy, relying on conservative oil-price assumptions, program-based budgeting, and a long-anticipated value-added tax rollout to diversify revenue. 

In a series of posts on X, the ministry stated: “The State Budget recorded a deficit of QR 0.5 bn in Q1 2025, and the deficit was financed through debt instruments.”  

It added: “The value of contracts with foreign companies reached QR 1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2025, representing a 50 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year.” 

The budget figures showed that revenue fell 7.5 percent year on year to 49.4 billion riyals, with hydrocarbons supplying 42.5 billion riyals while non-oil receipts held at 6.9 billion riyals. 

Spending slipped 2.8 percent to 49.9 billion riyals, comprising 6.9 billion riyals for salaries and wages, 18.5 billion riyals in other current costs, and a combined 14.3 billion riyals for major and minor capital projects. 

Despite the tighter envelope, procurement remained brisk: state entities awarded about 6.4 billion riyals in tenders and auctions, including 1.5 billion riyals to overseas contractors — up 50 percent on the same period last year. 

The ministry’s Sector Business Index showed the busiest spending concentrations in municipality and environment, health, energy and the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers. 

The International Monetary Fund’s February 2025 assessment said Qatar’s economy was moving past the post-World Cup slowdown. 

Real gross domestic product is expected to grow about two percent in 2024-25, then average roughly four-and-three-quarters percent once the planned expansion of liquefied natural gas output and the early reforms of the Third National Development Strategy take effect. 

Inflation should fall to 1 percent this year and settle near 2 percent over the medium term, it added. 

Lower hydrocarbon prices cut the 2023 current-account and budget surpluses to 17 percent and five-and-a-half percent of national output, with a further easing underway; however, both balances should remain positive as gas export volumes rise. 

Banks remain sound, holding capital equal to about one-fifth of risk-weighted assets, while problem loans stay below four percent and are well provisioned.  

The IMF urged Doha to introduce a value-added tax, adopt a medium-term budget anchor, sharpen the efficiency of public spending, deepen financial-sector oversight, and accelerate private sector-led diversification to secure long-run resilience. 


Lebanon on bumpy road to public transport revival

Updated 1 min 9 sec ago
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Lebanon on bumpy road to public transport revival

  • Public buses, now equipped with GPS tracking, have been slowly making a come back

BEIRUT: On Beirut’s chaotic, car-choked streets, Lebanese student Fatima Fakih rides a shiny purple bus to university, one of a fleet rolled out by authorities to revive public transport in a country struggling to deliver basic services.
The 19-year-old says the spacious public buses are “safer, better and more comfortable,” than the informal network of private buses and minivans that have long substituted for mass transport.
“I have my bus card — I don’t have to have money with me,” she added, a major innovation in Lebanon, where cash is king and many private buses and minivans have no tickets at all.
Lebanon’s public transport system never recovered from the devastating 1975-1990 civil war that left the country in ruins, and in the decades since, car culture has flourished.
Even before the economic crisis that began in 2019 — plunged much of the population into poverty and sent transport costs soaring — the country was running on empty, grappling with crumbling power, water and road infrastructure.
But public buses, now equipped with GPS tracking, have been slowly returning.
They operate along 11 routes — mostly in greater Beirut but also reaching north, south and east Lebanon — with a private company managing operations. Fares start at about 80 cents.


Passengers told AFP the buses were not only safer and more cost-effective, but more environmentally friendly.
They also offer a respite from driving on Lebanon’s largely lawless, potholed roads, where mopeds hurtle in all directions and traffic lights are scarce.
The system officially launched last July, during more than a year of hostilities between Israel and militant group Hezbollah that later slammed the brakes on some services.
Ali Daoud, 76, who remembers Lebanon’s long-defunct trains and trams, said the public bus was “orderly and organized” during his first ride.
The World Bank’s Beirut office told AFP that Lebanon’s “reliance on private vehicles is increasingly unsustainable,” noting rising poverty rates and vehicle operation costs.
Ziad Nasr, head of Lebanon’s public transport authority, said passenger numbers now averaged around 4,500 a day, up from just a few hundred at launch.
He said authorities hope to extend the network, including to Beirut airport, noting the need for more buses, and welcoming any international support.
France donated around half of the almost 100 buses now in circulation in 2022.
Consultant and transport expert Tammam Nakkash said he hoped the buses would be “a good start” but expressed concern at issues including the competition.
Private buses and minivans — many of them dilapidated and barrelling down the road at breakneck speed — cost similar to the public buses.
Shared taxis are also ubiquitous, with fares starting at around $2 for short trips.
Several incidents of violence targeted the new public buses around their launch last year.


Student and worker Daniel Imad, 19, said he welcomed the idea of public buses but had not tried them yet.
People “can go where they want for a low price” by taking shared taxis, he said before climbing into a one at a busy Beirut intersection.
Public transport could also have environmental benefits in Lebanon, where climate concerns often take a back seat to daily challenges like long power blackouts.
A World Bank climate and development report last year said the transport sector was Lebanon’s second-biggest contributor to greenhouse gas and air pollution, accounting for a quarter of emissions, only behind the energy sector.
Some smaller initiatives have also popped up, including four hybrid buses in east Lebanon’s Zahle.
Nabil Mneimne from the United Nations Development Programme said Lebanon’s first fully electric buses with a solar charging system were set to launch this year, running between Beirut and Jbeil (Byblos) further north.
In the capital, university student Fakih encouraged everyone to take public buses, “also to protect the environment.”
Beirut residents often complain of poor air quality due to heavy traffic and private, diesel-fueled electricity generators that operate during power outages.
“We don’t talk about this a lot but it’s very important,” she said, arguing that things could improve in the city “if we all took public transport.”


UN says deadly attacks around Gaza aid sites ‘a war crime’

Updated 4 min ago
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UN says deadly attacks around Gaza aid sites ‘a war crime’

GENEVA: UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday that “deadly attacks” on civilians around aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip constituted “a war crime.”
Rescuers in the Palestinian territory said Israeli fire targeting civilians near an aid distribution center in the southern city of Rafah killed 27 people on Tuesday, raising an earlier toll.
It came after a similar incident on Sunday when rescuers said 31 people were killed at the same location, witnesses saying they had been on their way to collect aid.
“Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza are unconscionable,” Turk said in a statement.
“For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This morning, we have received information that dozens more people were killed and injured.”
The US-backed GHF is a recently formed group that Israel has cooperated with to implement a new aid distribution mechanism in Gaza.
The United Nations does not work with the foundation because of concerns that it does not meet core humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence.
Turk called for a prompt and impartial investigation into each attack, and for those responsible to be held to account.
“Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law, and a war crime,” he said.
“Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through Israel’s militarised humanitarian assistance mechanism.
“This militarised system endangers lives and violates international standards on aid distribution, as the United Nations has repeatedly warned.”

Dubai Basketball end historic first season with knockout in Belgrade

Updated 13 min 34 sec ago
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Dubai Basketball end historic first season with knockout in Belgrade

  • Despite a 114-97 defeat to Partizan, the season has been one of major milestones for the team

DUBAI: Dubai Basketball ended their inaugural ABA League season after a 114-97 defeat in the final leg of the semifinal against Serbian powerhouse Partizan.

The team officially set out on their journey in the Adriatic League in September, competing against some of the most prolific sides in Europe. From beating reigning champions Red Star in their opening game to being one of the only teams in the league to beat Partizan twice at their home court, the 2024-25 season was packed with milestones.

The third and final game of the semifinals took place on Sunday night at Belgrade Arena, the home of Partizan, with Dubai determined to capitalize on squaring the series in the previous game.

Dubai opened the game with intensity, taking an early lead as Davis Bertans, Klemen Prepelic, and Nate Mason each sank three-pointers within the first four minutes. By the end of the first quarter, Dubai had stormed ahead with a commanding nine-point lead.

However, the momentum began to shift in the second quarter. With the backing of a packed home crowd, Partizan tightened their defence and gradually closed the gap, reducing Dubai’s lead to just a single point by the end of the third quarter.

As the game progressed into the third and fourth quarters, Partizan demonstrated why they are seven-time ABA League champions. Although they surged ahead, Dubai refused to go down without a fight, repeatedly equalising the score and keeping the contest wide open.

In the final quarter, Partizan pulled away, scoring an impressive 28 points that widened the gap to 17 and ultimately secured their place in the finals. Dubai, however, walked away with their heads held high, having challenged one of Europe’s top basketball teams to the very end.

Reflecting on the season, Dubai Basketball’s head coach, Jurica Golemac, said: “We must be satisfied. This was our first season, with 13 new players in total. We were fortunate to have selected not only top-quality athletes but also exceptional people who made this journey smoother.

“Throughout the season, we played good basketball. We claimed major wins — including victories over some of the league’s giants — and today, we pushed Partizan into a serious battle for a place in the finals. Plans for the future are already underway. In fact, they’ve been in motion throughout the season. Analysis, planning — it all continues.

“As they say, the off-season begins tomorrow, and so does our preparation for what comes next.”