My Take This Week: A new university in Dahban

• The economic summary for the second quarter released this month by Jadwa Investment indicates a strong, growing Saudi economy due to large government spending, and expansion in the nonoil private sector and construction. This is good news; It would be great if we would also see dips in inflation before end of this year.
• Private schools in Saudi Arabia that fail to contribute their part of an agreement to pay local teachers at least SR5,600 will face punitive measures. It is about time we promote the employment of Saudi men and women as teachers in private schools. It is puzzling why some schools still resist attempts to build a database of teachers eligible to benefit from the new scheme.
• Saudi Arabia aims to liberalize its power industry beginning with the privatization of the electricity sector by 2014. This is a good sign, as privatization aims to create a competitive market for electricity generation in. Four-generation companies with similar capacity and technology will be established. What does this mean for Saudi Arabia? A liberalized power sector is expected to help ease increasing demand for electricity in the Kingdom.
• The Philippine Post for the first time will be starting door-to-door deliveries of parcels and cash to the families of tens of thousands of Filipino expatriates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries back home. This is a good move due to the big number of Filipino nationals in the region. I hope that the new scheme would not be more expensive than the current process of transferring fund.
• Statistics of the drivers licensing department of the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) in the UAE, show that there are 109 Saudi women holders of Dubai driving licenses driving their cars in the UAE, making up 0.36 percent of the total Dubai driver’s licenses held by women. I have many Saudi female friends living and working in the UAE. They drive to work or take their kids to school with absolutely no problem. I hope one day soon the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia would be lifted and women would be allowed to drive.
• Arab News reported this week that a new Saudi university has been founded: The University of Business and Technology (UBT) in Dahban, north Jeddah. We need to promote the importance of graphic design and advertising studies in the country; it is unacceptable that 96 percent of employees in the advertising industry are non-Saudis.

Tweet:” The establishment of a special college to teach advertising will provide youths with a rare opportunity to study advertising according to international standards.” Abdullah Dahlan, president of UBT’s board of trustees.