Day: April 18, 2024

Madrid, The Saudi Minister of Municipal, Rural Affairs, and Housing, Majid bin Abdullah Al-Hogail, participated in yesterday’s Saudi-Spanish Business Forum launch in Madrid. The Federation of Saudi Chambers and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce organized the forum to discuss investment opportunities between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Spain. The participants reviewed ways to strengthen partnerships in areas such as construction technologies, smart cities, and urban planning.

At the forum, Al-Hogail expressed gratitude for the launch of the Saudi-Spanish Business Forum. He highlighted that the forum reflects the deep historical relations between Saudi Arabia and Spain as two friendly countries. He pointed out that the forum aims to discuss and explore investment opportunities and ways to enhance practical cooperation and partnership between the two countries in several vital fields and sectors, including municipal and housing sectors.

Al-Hogail noted that the mutual relations between the Kin
gdom and Spain, spanning over seven decades, have achieved many positive outputs that have reflected their impact on development, investment, and service development, including the construction sectors, civil engineering, financial activities, energy, and water desalination. He also pointed out that Saudi Arabia and Spain are witnessing a rapid development renaissance and tangible development in all fields. This makes investment and trade exchange opportunities between them a catalyst and attractant.

The Saudi minister affirmed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is working according to clear plans and targets set out by its Vision 2030 that have constituted a roadmap for all development sectors contributing to the economic and social sides and tangible results. The goal is to achieve more successes and achievements for a vibrant society, an ambitious nation, and a prosperous economy.

He elaborated that investments between the two countries are witnessing a significant development movement. The value of Spanis
h investments in the Kingdom exceeded $3 billion during the past ten years, 40% of which is related to the real estate sector. The minister stressed the importance of continuing cooperation and exchanging expertise to serve this vital sector as the Kingdom welcomes any extending bridges of cooperation with successful international expertise and benefiting from the distinguished houses of expertise.

Al-Hogail announced the signing of a real estate development agreement next month with one of the Spanish development companies. The agreement aims to implement residential units within integrated residential communities and suburbs that take into account the quality of life standards. The goal is to contribute to raising the homeownership rate to 70% by 2030. He expressed the ministry’s aspiration to strengthen partnerships with developers and investors in the construction, roads, and recycling sectors, in addition to engineering and consulting companies.

After the forum, Saudi Minister Al-Hogail met with the Th
ird Vice-President of the Government of Spain and the Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera. They discussed ways of cooperation in the fields of humanizing cities, urban development, and employing artificial intelligence technology in sustainable urban development. The minister highlighted the Kingdom’s efforts to apply quality-of-life standards in municipal and housing projects. He also discussed the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs, and Housing projects, including the “Bahjah” project, which aims to raise the quality of life in Saudi cities, and the Green Suburbs Project, which aims to plant more than 1.3 million trees in 50 housing projects.

Al-Hogail also met with the President of the Spanish Association of Infrastructure Contractors and Concessionaires, Julián Núñez. They reviewed the most prominent investment opportunities in the Saudi real estate sector.

The forum was attended by the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the Kingdom of Spain, Princess Haifa bint Abdu
laziz bin Ayyaf Al Muqrin, Chairman of the Saudi-Spanish Business Council Eng. Khalid bin Abdullah Al-Hogail and several other officials and leaders of Saudi and Spanish investment companies.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Ramallah – Together – A number of professional media institutions in Palestine organized a digital meeting on Wednesday 4/17 to launch the ‘Palestinian Media Sector Coordination Group.’ The group consists of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, the Palestinian Publishers Association/under establishment, the Private Broadcasting Association/under establishment, and the Media Development Center – Birzeit University.

The launch of this group comes in light of the biggest crisis facing journalists and the media sector in Palestine as a result of the ongoing brutal Israeli attack on all components of the Palestinian people in all their places in occupied Palestine, and its deadly targeting of journalists and media institutions in the Gaza Strip, which has so far resulted in the killing of more than ++ + A female journalist and a male journalist were injured +++, and the majority of the headquarters of press institutions were destroyed, in addition to the campaign of repression and intimidation and the arrest ++
+ of a female journalist and a Palestinian journalist.

This group aims to lead the efforts to rehabilitate and reform the Palestinian media sector, and to launch the process of building it financially and professionally more solid and stronger than before, so that it can fulfill its role and mission in the process of national liberation and construction by providing free and independent journalism to the Palestinian people of all sects and locations. The group has placed among its priorities the preparation of proposals and the basic needs of the media sector to be the basis for launching its work and in its dialogue with various national and international bodies concerned with developing the Palestinian press and strengthening its position.

The group also agreed to organize a joint event on May 3, World Journalist Freedom Day, to shed light on the challenges facing the Palestinian press and ways to confront them, and will invite all Palestinian organizations interested in supporting journalists, the media,
freedom of expression and basic freedoms to cooperate and work under the umbrella of the ‘Defense Alliance.’ About freedom of expression and basic freedoms in Palestine.

Participating in this meeting were Buthaina Al-Sumairi, Director of the Media Development Center, Nasser Abu Bakr, Head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Raed Othman, President of the Publishers Association, and Riyad Khamis, President of the Private Broadcasting Association. Representatives of the International Federation of Journalists also attended as observers.

For more information and inquiries about the Palestinian Media Sector Coordination Group, please contact the following mailing address:

To communicate with members of the Palestinian Media Sector Coordination Group:

Media Development Center:

Journalists Syndicate:

Publishers Association:

Private Broadcasting Association:

Source: Maan News Agency