SUSRIS Daily News – Excerpts from International Media Reports
[Links to full articles were active on the date posted here]
Over 450 Firms Taking Part in GITEX KSA 2010 [Apr 25]
“Eng. Mohammed Jameel Bin Ahmad Mulla, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, will inaugurate Sunday GITEX KSA 2010, a premier business-to-business networking event and a leading consumer ICT exhibition at Riyadh International Exhibition Center. Over 450 leading companies from over 17 countries are participating in GITEX KSA 2010, which runs concurrently with Saudi Communications 2010. GITEX KSA 2010 will introduce a wide array of new technology innovations, including rapid deployment units, alternate wind and solar energy solution for powering sites, fibre optic turnkey services, GIS, signalling and telecommunications solutions, BTS monitoring devices, interactive technology services, and theater rigging systems. Saudi Arabia is projected to increase IT spending to the tune of around SR18.1 billion by 2013..” [Complete Report]
AIA Names Saudi’s KAUST In 2010 Top Green Projects [Apr 25]
“The American Institute of Architecture recently hailed The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as one of its top ten most environmentally responsible building designs. This follows other ‘green’ developments in Saudi Arabia, including the largest environmental tourism park, and a solar-powered desalination plant. KAUST has bagged a few firsts: it is the country’s first co-ed university as well as its first LEED certified building, and at 6.5 million sq feet, with 26 buildings built on 9,000 acres of land near Jeddah, on the Red Sea, it is also the largest Platinum certified building in the world. It achieved this rating by meeting some of the most stringent USGBC’s LEED rating requirements. Under transportation: 100 shared electric cars along with recharging stations, segway and bike shares, and 3 shuttle bus lines on campus. Under renewable energy: 2 solar towers, along with solar thermal and photovoltaic panels, amounting to a total production of 4MW renewable energy..” [Complete Report]
NRC Calls For Fining Lankan Recruitment Agencies [Apr 25]
“The National Recruitment Committee (NRC) has urged the Saudi Embassy in Colombo to make recruitment agencies in Sri Lanka abide by the conditions set forth in the unified contract, especially the deadline set for the completion of recruitment procedures of housemaids. The committee allegedly said the embassy ignores most of complaints made by private recruitment offices in the Kingdom about the malpractices of recruitment offices in Colombo. NRC member Hussein Al-Mettari urged the embassy to levy a fine on erring Sri Lankan recruitment agencies as stipulated in the unified contract, which says that a penalty of SR30 a day can be imposed on either party held responsible for a delay. He said the continual delays and trading in visas have forced local recruitment offices in the Kingdom to stop recruiting maids from Sri Lanka, especially as recruitment fees of housemaids have reached SR9,500 at a time when salaries for housemaids are fixed at SR650..” [Complete Report]
Saudi Arabia’s Healthcare Market Offers Potential for Singapore Firms [Apr 25]
“Singapore’s healthcare companies can contribute to Saudi Arabia’s healthcare sector development. The latest to join this effort is Singapore company Mach 7 Technologies, which signed a joint venture agreement with Saudi solutions provider Medisys. IE Singapore said the Kingdom’s healthcare market has recorded steady growth over the past eight years. And the government, which funds most of the healthcare capital and operating expenditures, has budgeted an additional 51 per cent for healthcare and social services in 2010 – amounting to US$16.3 billion. So the growing demand for healthcare there presents opportunities for Singapore companies to seek partnership with Saudi counterparts..” [Complete Report]
TVTC Plans to Create Four Million Jobs [Apr 25]
“The General Organization for Technical and Vocational Training plans to prepare four million job opportunities in the technical and vocational fields for young Saudis over the next decade, according to TVTCTVTC General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training at present owns more than 200 training institutes all over the Kingdom in addition to 300 projects and training programs which will be fundamental in the plan,” he said. Al-Ghifais said less than 20 percent of the Saudi population has been educated beyond high school but that most of the employees in the sectors that could offer jobs for the lesser educated, such as factories, are foreign. “About 84 percent of the manpower in industrial factories are non-Saudis and 90 percent of them were not skilled labor when they came to our country. They obtained their skills through training here,” he said. The governor said that to achieve TVTCTVTC’s strategic objectives his organization should study job development strategies from different countries, such as Germany, Canada, Britain, Ireland and Korea. Meanwhile, human resources expert Abdullah Al-Sharif said the organization’s plan is aimed at reducing the recruitment of unqualified foreign manpower..” [Complete Report]
