LEAP conference set to showcase Saudi Arabia’s tech and entrepreneurial ambitions

Special LEAP conference set to showcase Saudi Arabia’s tech and entrepreneurial ambitions
Saudi Arabia is projected to spend over $24 billion on various technologies by 2025 in the pursuit of its Vision 2030 goals to diversify the economy. (Supplied)
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Updated 06 February 2023

LEAP conference set to showcase Saudi Arabia’s tech and entrepreneurial ambitions

LEAP conference set to showcase Saudi Arabia’s tech and entrepreneurial ambitions
  • Over 100,000 innovators, investors and experts from around the world descending on Riyadh for four-day event 
  • LEAP will be co-located with DeepFest, an AI event organized by Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence

RIYADH: Artificial intelligence, digital economy, and digital metaverses may be terms the average technology aficionado expects to hear at a conference in Seoul or Silicon Valley. This week, however, all things tech will be the talk of the town in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

From Feb. 6 to 9, over 100,000 tech innovators and leading experts will gather for the second LEAP conference, a global platform for tech professionals from around the world.

Held alongside LEAP will be DeepFest, the inaugural AI event powered by the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence. Both events demonstrate the Kingdom’s aim to take its place among the world’s most technologically advanced nations.

The Kingdom is projected to spend over $24 billion on various technologies by 2025 — the highest in the world, according to the Saudi Press Agency.




Investing in data literacy training for public sector employees ensures that data is being used effectively. (Supplied)

At last year’s LEAP conference, Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha announced that the country would be investing $6.4 billion in future technologies and entrepreneurship to further solidify the Kingdom’s position as the Middle East and North Africa region’s largest digital economy.

The growth of the Saudi tech industry, in line with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030, is a way for the Kingdom to diversify its economy away from oil and gas revenues.

According to a 2022 Economist Intelligence report, Saudi Arabia was the world’s fastest-growing major economy in 2022, “outperforming the dynamic Asian giants of China, India, Indonesia and South Korea, as well as the struggling G7 and other major emerging economies.”

LEAP broke records last year when its inaugural conference became the world’s largest tech event ever held. This year looks to be just as big, if not bigger, than last, with top professionals in the tech industry traveling to Riyadh from across the world.

“Saudi Arabia’s recent investments in its digital economy, as well as its information and communications technology sector, helped consolidate its position as the leading information and communication technology market in the Middle East and North Africa,” Imad Abuizz, digital and technology platform leader at the business management consultant firm PwC Middle East, told Arab News.

Since the announcement of Saudi Vision 2030 seven years ago, the Kingdom has launched a series of initiatives that emphasize technology as a tool for social and economic reform.

Strategic agendas under Vision 2030 focus on regenerating the country’s digital infrastructure to boost economic growth, knowledge and enhance daily life. To this end, Saudi Arabia has committed to an annual investment of 2.5 percent of GDP in the sectors of development, research and innovation by 2040.

The Kingdom’s technological plans are supported by SDAIA, which was launched by royal decree in August 2019.

The same year, the Saudi government launched Absher, a smartphone application which enables citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia to access a variety of government services.

“Government spending demonstrates a big focus on digitalization,” Fadi Komati, a digital government consulting leader at PwC Middle East, told Arab News. “Why the sector is moving so quickly is because the majority of the population is young and eager to move forward and advance in cutting-edge technologies.




Fadi Komati

“The government’s digital transformation and continued investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and innovation lay the groundwork for a lot of opportunities, both for the private and public sector.”

Komati underlines how government investment in tech is “encouraging the private sector to become more mature, thus also stimulating and incentivising international companies to visit and open in Saudi Arabia.”

“The increased progress in the private tech sector within Saudi Arabia is a result of government investment in the sector,” he said.

In the same vein, Saudi tech entrepreneur Hussein Attar, CEO at private investment firm Tech Invest Com, told Arab News: “In terms of Saudi Arabia, all the giga projects being launched, such as NEOM, have placed a strong focus on technological innovation. Every giga project has a funding side that is investing in tech. Saudi Aramco also has its own investment fund for technology.”




Hussein Attar

At last year’s LEAP conference, Saudi Aramco unveiled a billion dollars’ worth of investments in developing start-ups through entrepreneurship support fund Prosperity 7 Ventures. NEOM Tech & Digital Holding Co. stated it was investing $1 billion in future technologies and launching the new M3LD AI engine as well as the XVRS digital twin metaverse.

Technological investment in Saudi Arabia is also paramount to the country’s environmental goals. In October 2022, at the sixth edition of the Future Investment Initiative, Aramco unveiled a $1.5 billion sustainability fund, one of the world’s largest sustainability-focused venture capital funds.

Recent data demonstrates the rise of Saudi Arabia as a growing global center, both regionally and internationally, in both the private and public sectors. According to the 2022 Saudi Arabia Venture Capital Report produced by Magnitt, the Kingdom was one of the emerging markets that recorded year on year growth nearing the $1 billion mark.

Saudi Arabia’s tech evolution is a way for the country to connect with the wider region and the world. AI, which was a recent focus at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is paramount to the Kingdom’s growth in the field of tech.




A scene from LEAP 2022. (File photo Supplied)

In September 2022, the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence announced an investment of $776 million in a joint venture with China’s SenseTime to develop the AI ecosystem in Saudi Arabia.

“The Kingdom’s advanced technological infrastructure, high-caliber developments in the field of AI, and high standards designed by government authorities encourage AI businesses to plug in and grow in a regionally leading market,” Dr. Turki Almugaiteeb, a Saudi expert in technological development and innovation, told Arab News.




Dr. Turki Almugaiteeb

Saudi Arabia has also signed a number of partnerships with global AI providers to find practical solutions to everyday problems, Komati said, adding: “AI is very high on the agenda in Saudi Arabia because it is considered a mechanism by which technology can provide much bigger benefits.”

Technological investment and the Kingdom’s numerous avenues being explored for technological growth and innovation are also about education and offering a better life for its citizens, residents, and all visitors to Saudi Arabia.

In the words of Almugaiteeb, the key ingredients in Saudi Arabia’s rise to tech giant status are “the great human resources being developed in the Kingdom, combined with educated young Saudis in the field, many of whom have gained experience abroad.”

 

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OIC chief calls water conservation awareness

OIC chief calls water conservation awareness
Updated 16 sec ago

OIC chief calls water conservation awareness

OIC chief calls water conservation awareness
  • He emphasized that water security has assumed strategic importance for the organization’s member states

JEDDAH: Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Hissein Brahim Taha said that the theme of this year’s International World Water Day, “Be the change,” is a call to promote awareness about water conservation and to seek alternative water sources and regulations for a water-secure future.

He underlined that the water crisis, like any other global crisis, requires a cohesive international community that enables its stakeholders to work collectively toward common goals by facilitating knowledge-sharing and capacity-building.

The OIC chief emphasized that water security has assumed strategic importance for the organization’s member states. The challenges of ensuring access to water and managing unpredictable water-related risks are becoming more pronounced, he added.

The “enormity of the challenge requires indeed a collective response within a framework of cooperation at global, regional and sub-regional levels,” Taha said.

He reiterated that the OIC remains committed to ensuring the realization of its Water Vision Implementation Plan, approved in Egypt in 2018, “which provides a framework for promoting cooperation for a water-secure future through increased collaboration, exchange of best practices, technology transfer, capacity-building and development of expertise in various water-related disciplines.”

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is participating in the UN Water Conference, which is being held at UN headquarters in New York between March 22-24.

The Kingdom’s delegation is led by Abdulaziz Al-Shaibani, the undersecretary for water affairs at the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, and includes other representatives from the water sector in the Kingdom.

The delegation will participate in several plenary meetings during the conference to shed light on the Kingdom’s experience in water sustainability over the past five years. New initiatives are expected to be announced during the conference to help address the challenges facing the least developed countries.


Winners of 24th King Salman Award for Holy Qur’an to be honored in Riyadh

Winners of 24th King Salman Award for Holy Qur’an to be honored in Riyadh
Updated 5 min 22 sec ago

Winners of 24th King Salman Award for Holy Qur’an to be honored in Riyadh

Winners of 24th King Salman Award for Holy Qur’an to be honored in Riyadh
  • More than 3,000 compete in 6 divisions, with 105 contestants making it to the finals

RIYADH: Prince Faisal bin Bandar, governor of Riyadh, will attend the 24th King Salman Award for the Holy Qur’an memorization, recitation and interpretation for boys, which will be held on Thursday. 

The ceremony, organized and supervised by the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah and Guidance, will be held at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh in the presence of the Saudi Islamic Minister Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Asheikh, along with scholars, senior officials, and ambassadors and directors of charities for memorization of the Qur’an in the Kingdom.

More than 3,000 contestants took part in the preliminaries, 105 of whom made it to the finals. The contestants in the preliminaries participated in six divisions of the competition. The first division is memorizing the Qur’an entirely with good performance and intonation with seven frequent readings. 

The second is memorizing the Qur’an entirely with good performance, intonation, and interpretation of the vocabulary of the Qur’an, and the third division is memorizing the entire Qur’an with good performance and intonation. 

The fourth division of the competition involves memorizing 20 consecutive parts of the Qur’an with good performance; the fifth division involves memorizing 10 consecutive parts of the Qur’an with good performance and intonation; and the last division of the competition involves memorizing five consecutive parts of the Qur’an with good performance and intonation.

The King Salman award for memorization of the Qur’an for girls will be held on Friday evening in the presence of King Salman’s wife, Princess Fahda bint Falah Al-Hathleen, at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh.

Prizes worth SR3 million ($800,000) will be distributed among the winners in the six divisions of the competition.


Mawhiba announces names of gifted students for the year

Mawhiba announces names of gifted students for the year
Updated 6 min 43 sec ago

Mawhiba announces names of gifted students for the year

Mawhiba announces names of gifted students for the year
  • The competition featured 25,000 students

RIYADH: The King Abdulaziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba), the Ministry of Education, and the Education and Training Evaluation Authority represented by the National Center for Assessment announced the results of this year’s National Program for Gifted Identification.

“Participants included students from 40 different nationalities and Saudi students from 13 different regions in the Kingdom,” said Dr. Basil Al-Sadhan, Mawhiba’s deputy secretary-general.

Last year, the competition saw the participation of 17,000 students, while this year, it featured 25,000 students, said Dr. Mohammed Al-Moqbel, undersecretary of the Ministry of Education.

Compared to last year, there was “a huge increase in the number of discovered gifted students,” said Al-Sadhan.

The aim of the program is to discover students who are gifted in science and technology and to direct them through appropriate care programs.

“Gifted, promising students and their accomplishments should be reflected in our society, to raise the spirit of competition among students,” said Dr. Abdullah Al-Qatie, executive director of the National Center for Assessment.

“An important element for the success of this program is to train teachers on how to spot and deal with gifted students. A teacher who is trained to deal with gifted students has to be carefully selected,” he said.

He added: “It is our responsibility and priority to provide gifted students with a suitable, safe and supportive environment.”

In light of the increased number of students participating this year, Mawhiba has announced new plans to further improve the effectiveness of the program.

These include opening an international training program for high school students, led by researchers from prestigious universities; reaching out to undiscovered gifted students residing in small towns in the Kingdom; and improving on the special curriculum for gifted students.


KSrelief chief calls for expansion of global humanitarian donor base

KSrelief chief calls for expansion of global humanitarian donor base
Updated 12 min 12 sec ago

KSrelief chief calls for expansion of global humanitarian donor base

KSrelief chief calls for expansion of global humanitarian donor base
  • Only a small number of donors fund over 80% of aid operations around the world, says Al-Rabeeah

RIYADH: Supervisor General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said that only a small number of donors fund over 80 percent of humanitarian operations around the world, calling upon other countries to help expand the donor base to meet growing needs.

Speaking at a session titled “Soaring humanitarian needs and limited resources: Engaging emerging donors and new sources of financing” at the European Humanitarian Forum, which is being held in Brussels March 20-22, Al-Rabeeah stressed the importance of expanding the donor base for global humanitarian action.

It is important to expand that base to reduce the cost for donors, Al-Rabeeah said, calling for intensified efforts on the part of countries, institutions and the private sector to finance global humanitarian action.

Al-Rabeeah recalled the generous directive of King Salman to involve the private sector in financing worldwide humanitarian work and task the center with launching campaigns in response to humanitarian crises, noting that the center supports international humanitarian action and UN institutions.

Saudi Arabia, in partnership with the World Food Programme, annually carries out a campaign worth over $136 million, gifting dates to 72 countries, Al-Rabeeah said.

KSrelief also supported the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic by providing vaccines, medical supplies and financial support.

Al-Rabeeah noted that the Kingdom is chair of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ donor group for 2022-2023, adding that Saudi Arabia has been active in contacting donors, mobilizing their support for OCHA, and working with the group to expand the donor base and provide solutions to humanitarian problems.

At the forum in the Belgian capital, KSrelief showcased its humanitarian work in 90 countries. The center’s pavilion featured projects involving food security, health, safety, emergency relief, education and shelter for the displaced.

It also showcased KSrelief’s reach to beneficiaries through air and land bridges and its projects implemented in Yemen, including the Masam project to clear the country of mines, an initiative to rehabilitate child soldiers and the establishment of a center for prosthetics.

On the sidelines of the forum, Al-Rabeeah met with EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic. 

The two officials discussed issues related to humanitarian and relief affairs, and ways to develop them, as well as the key topics touched upon in the forum.

Lenarcic commended Saudi Arabia’s active participation in the forum and the donors’ conference for people affected by the earthquake in Syria and Turkiye, highlighting KSrelief’s efforts in supporting humanitarian aid worldwide.

Haifa Al-Jedea, ambassador and head of the Saudi mission to the EU, also attended the meeting.


Indonesian, Hijazi cultural traditions celebrated at event in Jeddah

Event was organized by Zawiya 97, the Jeddah Historic District Program and Angklung Ensemble from KAUST’s arts office.
Event was organized by Zawiya 97, the Jeddah Historic District Program and Angklung Ensemble from KAUST’s arts office.
Updated 22 March 2023

Indonesian, Hijazi cultural traditions celebrated at event in Jeddah

Event was organized by Zawiya 97, the Jeddah Historic District Program and Angklung Ensemble from KAUST’s arts office.
  • “Apart from our role to revive the community in Al-Balad, we are celebrating the culture of Indonesia through its arts, tradition, food, and music,” Angawi said

JEDDAH: Performances using traditional musical instruments hit the right note with visitors to an Indonesian and Hijazi cultural event held recently in Jeddah.

The angklung, an Indonesian instrument made from bamboo, and the Arabian oud featured prominently at the event which took place in the historic Al-Balad area of the city.

Organized by Zawiya 97 in collaboration with the Jeddah Historic District Program and the Angklung Ensemble from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s arts office, the gathering was attended by around 300 guests including KAUST students and staff, members of the Indonesian community, and leading Saudi figures.

A musical rendition based around the angklung was performed by an Andika Berbawa-led band of students, teachers, and university staff from KAUST’s arts department.

Ahmed Angawi, chief executive officer of Zawiya 97, told Arab News: “Usually our celebrations focus on the traditions and culture of this region through arts, crafts, and architecture design but this event is about music in collaboration with KAUST and Jeddah Historic District Program.

“Apart from our role to revive the community in Al-Balad, we are celebrating the culture of Indonesia through its arts, tradition, food, and music, which highlights the beautiful connection between Indonesia and the Hijaz area,” he said.

He noted that the event had been staged to offer Indonesian music fused with Hijazi songs and Indonesian cuisine in celebration of a cultural convergence that extended through the ages.

Indonesian students showcased traditional clothing and crafts from various regions, and guests were invited to sample popular southeast Asian dishes such as selat Solo, mie goreng, sayur lodeh with quail eggs, and chicken satay.

Solkem N’Gangbet, head of KAUST’s office of the arts, said: “Al-Balad, Hijaz, and Indonesia are a natural combination. So, we decided, with Zawiya 97, to come up with music and culinary art to honor this connection through ages.”

She pointed out that the event had been designed to draw links between the past, present, and future.

The ceremony concluded with a local band performing Hijazi music.