DAMMAM: The Saudi government has approved a plan to begin issuing tourist visas for the country, Al Watan newspaper reported yesterday. The paper’s sources stated that, in the first stage of the rollout, visas will only be available to groups of visitors through authorized tour operators.
Jamal Al-Fakhri, a member of the Shoura Council and the executive committee of Tabuk Tourism Development Council, told Al Watan that he hoped Tabuk would become “a destination for tourists in the region.”
He said that the Public Investment Fund (PIF) would help to promote tourism in Saudi Arabia, adding that tourism projects “with further diversify job opportunities” in the Kingdom.
“There are many (potential) tour guides who are multilingual and ready to work in the field after meeting the requirements set by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH),” he continued.
Rustam Al-Kubaisi, head of the SCTH’s Jizan branch, cited the Asir development project, the annual Souk Okaz in Ta’if, and the Farasan Islands as examples of tourism initiatives in the Kingdom, as well as museums and archaeological sites.
“The SCTH has been conducting tourism training workshops for the youth on topics including establishing small tourism projects and methods for increasing safety in tourism establishments,” he said. “This is in addition to raising awareness about the importance of relics, urban heritage and historical buildings.”
He added that the people of Jizan are renowned for their hospitality and are ready to welcome tourists from outside the Kingdom.
Saudi tourist visas will be available soon
Saudi tourist visas will be available soon
Leading AI company to partner with Saudi Arabia, CEO tells Arab News
- Argentum’s Andrew Sobko: ‘Very easy’ to build new infrastructure, data centers in Kingdom
- In 2024, Saudi Arabia announced $100bn plan to establish AI hub
CHICAGO: The founder and CEO of Argentum AI, one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies, has told Arab News that he is looking forward to partnering with Saudi Arabia.
Ukrainian-born Andrew Sobko, based in Chicago, said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made a significant commitment to AI use.
In 2024, Saudi Arabia announced a $100 billion plan under Vision 2030 to build a hub to develop technology and data centers to handle a significant portion of the world’s AI workload.
The Kingdom reportedly expects AI to contribute more than $135.2 billion to its gross domestic product by 2030, representing roughly 12.4 percent of its economy.
“The US still is the kind of core leader of this AI innovation, development and infrastructure, but we quickly realized that Saudi Arabia sees this as an important asset class, not just as an innovation,” Sobko said.
“They’re deploying tons of capital. If you try to build some new infrastructure or data center, it’s very easy to do it in Saudi Arabia,” he added. “Saudi Arabia realizes and sees this compute as almost like a second asset class after oil.”
The term “compute” refers to the process of calculations that fuels AI development and applications in everyday use.
“The Middle East wants to be one of the largest exporters of compute. They realized that a couple of years ago and they’re aggressively expanding,” Sobko said, adding that AI is being used more and more in industries such as sports, in which Saudi Arabia has invested heavily.
Argentum AI recently added Majed Al-Sorour, CEO of the Saudi Golf Federation, to its board.
“Majed is also a huge believer in AI and AI infrastructure,” said Sobko. “With the help of Majed, we’re focusing on global expansion. He’s leading charge on that.”
Sobko said the challenge is not simply recognizing the importance of AI, but the ability to power data centers that it requires, and Saudi Arabia recognizes that need.
“If you secure a significant amount of power and you have data center capacity, you can actually control this kind of compute and AI,” he added.
“And the biggest bottleneck to continue expanding as we enter into this new age of robotics industry, it needs a lot more compute.”
Following meetings with US leadership, including President Donald Trump last November, Saudi Arabia secured agreements on AI technology transfers, aiming to avoid reliance on other nations’ systems.
