List of all articles filed under “saudi-arabia-knowledge-economy” category.
Between 2013 and 2025, GCC countries will have spent roughly 1 trillion on defence and about 30% of this is dedicated to capital expenditures. If a 35% offset requirement is enforced this means that 105 billion could either be invested or sourced domestically creating more than 280,000 jobs.
We were established in 2010 and since then we have invested in around 16 companies but it is common to pull your investments out of certain companies sometimes which we have done two or three times. Of those 16 companies, 3 are international, 3 are JVs locally here but with international partners and the remaining companies are start-ups based on Intellectual Properties emerging from the university.
Al Yamamah University (YU) is a relatively new, fully accredited private university of about 2000 students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
Sami Alhumaidi, Managing Director of PSATRI taks about innovation in Saudi Arabia.
Sami Alhumaidi, Managing Director of PSATRI taks about the offset program in Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed A. Alabbadi, General Manager of Cisco talks about CISCO’s strategy in 2016.
Saudi Arabia is a growing nation. Statistics show that 70% of the population is under the age of 30. There is a huge demand for education. One need only look to the increasing number of universities and colleges opening up in the past 15 to 20 years to see that. Right now, the Kingdom has 28 public universities and 12 private ones, and nearly the same number of private colleges. We also have vocational training programs, and other options for military-specific training, or for medicine.
The government is keen to ease doing business in Saudi Arabia. With establishing SAGIA and allowing for 100% ownership, the government initiated steps towards this goal. There were obstacles before, but nowadays it is very easy to open a business. Recently, when King Salman visited the United States, he welcomed an open market for the retail sectors.
Also if you look at some of the consumer trends that usually drive behaviours, there is a very young population with over 70% of the population under 25, and they are very tech savvy in IT usage from a consumer perspective. These factors are driving even more trends toward corporate services and government services.
The top three largest defense spenders in the world are the US, Russia, and China. According to 2014 figures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Saudi Arabia comes in as a close fourth, having spent an estimated $80.8 billion dollars up by 17% from 2013.
