Saudi Arabia launches initiative to boost transport sector

The initiative aims to enhance the authority’s services in the transport sector and offer incentives to potential investors in land, sea, and rail transport. (Shutterstock)
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Updated 02 May 2021
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Saudi Arabia launches initiative to boost transport sector

  • New program aims to strengthen public-private partnership

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Transport General Authority on Saturday launched its “Distinguished Transport Partner” program to strengthen public-private partnerships in the sector.

The program will benefit transport companies with a fleet of at least 500 licensed vehicles of different sizes including trucks, buses, and taxis.

The initiative aims to enhance the authority’s services in the transport sector and offer incentives to potential investors in land, sea, and rail transport.

In an official statement, the authority said the program was launched to expand the Kingdom’s transport sector, which will help boost its contribution to the national non-oil economy.

The authority said it will make use of all its electronic channels such as the Naql platform and the existing business service centers in 15 cities of the Kingdom to facilitate potential investors and existing transporters.

The centers are working in Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, Dammam and Al-Ahsa, Qassim, Tabuk, Hail, Arar, Al-Jouf, Al-Baha, Asir, Najran and Jizan.

The business centers allow clients to use multiple services through the digital package provided by the Naql gateway.

FASTFACTS

• The program will benefit transport companies with a fleet of at least 500 licensed vehicles of different sizes including trucks, buses, and taxis.

• The initiative offers incentives to potential investors in land, sea, and rail transport.

• The program aims to make Saudi Arabia a regional and international logistics hub.

Fahad Al-Baddah, the authority’s general supervisor of operations and digital transformation, said the authority is keen to strengthen its partnership with the private sector to achieve one of the Kingdom’s strategic goals of becoming a regional and international logistics hub. He said the authority is exploring ways to boost direct and indirect communication using different resources.

Al-Baddah said these efforts aim to boost the quality of services and sustainability of the Kingdom’s private transport sector. He said the newly launched initiative seeks to create an environment conducive to investment. It will encourage local and international investors to do business and expand their existing operations, the official said.

Al-Baddah said the initiative will also help achieve the primary goals of the “Shareek” initiative, which was recently launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He said detailed information about the program can be found at www.naql.sa and the authority’s social media account for customer service @Naql_SAUDI.


Iran crisis could disrupt supply of key chipmaking materials, South Korea warns

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Iran crisis could disrupt supply of key chipmaking materials, South Korea warns

  • South Korea ‌sources helium, bromine from Middle East
  • Energy cost spike may raise chip prices, industry fears
  • AI data center plans in Middle East could face setbacks

SEOUL: The US-Israel war with Iran could disrupt supplies of key semiconductor manufacturing materials, a South Korean ruling party lawmaker said on Thursday, as the conflict in the Middle East entered its sixth day.

South Korea’s chip industry, which supplies around two-thirds of global memory chips, is also concerned that a prolonged conflict in Iran will lead to higher energy costs and prices, Kim Young-bae said after meeting with executives from companies such as Samsung Electronics and trade groups.

“Officials raised a possibility that semiconductor production could be ‌disrupted if ‌some of these key materials cannot be sourced from ​the ‌Middle ⁠East,” he ​said ⁠at a briefing with reporters, giving helium as one example.

Helium is essential for heat management during semiconductor production and it has no viable alternatives currently. It is only produced in a handful of countries, with Qatar among the leading players in the industry.

The warnings come as chipmakers grapple with severe supply bottlenecks due to surging chip demand from AI data center operators that has tightened supplies to many other industries, including smartphones, laptops and ⁠automobiles.

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix said in a statement it ‌has “long secured diverse supply chains and sufficient inventory” ‌of helium, “therefore there is almost no chance that the company ​will be affected.”

Samsung declined to comment.

Taiwan’s ‌TSMC said in a statement that it did not anticipate any significant impact ‌currently, and will continue monitoring the situation closely.

Contract chipmaker GlobalFoundries said it is “in direct contact with suppliers, customers and partners in the region,” and “mitigation plans” are in place.

South Korea’s industry ministry said the country relies heavily on the Middle East for 14 other items in chip ‌supply chains, including bromine and chip inspection equipment, but that many of them can be sourced domestically or from other markets.

Impact on data centers

South Korea’s ⁠chip industry also warned the crisis could deal a setback to plans by big tech firms to build AI data centers in the Middle East in the longer term, thus weighing on chip demand, said Kim, the ruling party lawmaker.

Amazon said on Monday some of its data centers in the UAE and Bahrain were damaged by drone strikes, sparking questions around Big Tech’s pace of expansion in the region.

US tech giants like Microsoft and Nvidia have been positioning the UAE as a regional hub for artificial intelligence computing needed to power services such as ChatGPT.

Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel early on Thursday in retaliation for US ​and Israeli strikes that killed Supreme Leader ​Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.