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Saudi Arabia Grants First Local Brand License for Electric Car Manufacturing

Lucid electric cars (Lucid Motors)
Lucid electric cars (Lucid Motors)
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Saudi Arabia Grants First Local Brand License for Electric Car Manufacturing

Lucid electric cars (Lucid Motors)
Lucid electric cars (Lucid Motors)

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources has granted an industrial license to Ceer, the first local electric vehicle (EV) brand.

The EV manufacturing facility will cover an area of one million square meters in King Abdullah Economic City’s Industrial Valley.

A joint venture between the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Foxconn, Ceer was launched last November under the aegis of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources Spokesperson Jarrah bin Mohammed Al-Jarrah has emphasized the strategic significance of the automotive industry in the Kingdom’s overall industrial strategy.

He added that with the global light vehicles market expected to double in the next decade, the automotive sector presents a compelling regional opportunity.

Al-Jarrah also stressed that the automotive manufacturing industry will serve as a catalyst for other priority sectors, such as minerals and chemicals.

It aligns with the Kingdom’s diversification goals and its ability to export to neighboring markets, contributing to the growth of the non-oil economy.

In addition to direct economic benefits, the development of a national automotive sector will indirectly benefit the economy and the local industry in several ways, including through knowledge transfer, industry localization, development of local content, and creation of job opportunities for Saudi citizens.

Ceer is the first Saudi automotive brand to produce electric vehicles in Saudi Arabia; it will design, manufacture and sell a range of vehicles for consumers in Saudi Arabia and MENA region, including sedans and SUVs.

Ceer’s vehicles will be tested to the highest global automotive quality control and safety standards. The brand’s electric vehicles are scheduled to be available in 2025.

The factory will be state-of-the-art, featuring the latest technologies to ensure manufacturing efficiency while minimizing energy and water usage.

Ceer is expected to attract over SAR562 million ($149.8 million) worth of foreign direct investment and create up to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs. It is projected to directly contribute SAR30 billion to Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2034.

In other news, the ministry, represented by the General Administration of Comprehensive Industrial Service Centers and Compliance Management, conducted 1,577 field visits to industrial facilities in several regions of the Kingdom during May.

These visits were part of regular inspections to monitor the factories, assess their readiness, and ensure their compliance with quality standards and necessary regulations.

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France’s Finances to Come under Further Strain Whoever Wins Election

A voter prepares to cast a ballot at a polling station for the first round of the parliamentary elections in Paris, Sunday June 30, 2024. (AP)
A voter prepares to cast a ballot at a polling station for the first round of the parliamentary elections in Paris, Sunday June 30, 2024. (AP)
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France’s Finances to Come under Further Strain Whoever Wins Election

A voter prepares to cast a ballot at a polling station for the first round of the parliamentary elections in Paris, Sunday June 30, 2024. (AP)
A voter prepares to cast a ballot at a polling station for the first round of the parliamentary elections in Paris, Sunday June 30, 2024. (AP)

Already under scrutiny from ratings agencies, financial markets and Brussels, France's public finances are likely to come under more strain no matter what the outcome of a snap parliamentary election, which starts with a first round of voting on Sunday.

The main parties have all promised new spending but their plans to pay for it are short on detail and do not always stack up.

Polls indicate that the far-right National Rally (RN) will come first, followed by the New Popular Front left-wing alliance and President Emmanuel Macron's Together trailing in third.

The outgoing government had promised to cut the budget deficit from 5.5% of Gross Domestic Product last year to a European Union ceiling of 3% by 2027 - an objective that may be unattainable after the vote, which concludes with a second round on July 7.

FAR-RIGHT NATIONAL RALLY

If it forms a government, the RN wants as soon as July to cut value added (VAT) sales tax on energy, which it says would cost 7 billion euros for the rest of this year and 12 billion in a full year.

The RN says it would be financed by obtaining a 2-billion-euro rebate on France's EU budget contribution, although the bloc's 2021-27 budget has long since been voted into the books.

The party is counting on big gains from ramping up a levy on exceptional profits from power producers and replacing a tonnage tax on shipowners with normal corporate tax, although that sector's bumper profits of recent years is likely to subside.

The RN also wants to annul a cutback in the duration of unemployment benefits due from in July, a move that the outgoing government says would cost 4 billion euros.

Further out, the RN aims to index pensions to inflation, reduce the retirement age to 60 for people who started work at 20 or before, exempt some workers under the age of 30 from income tax and raise teacher and nurses wages.

It also wants to go ahead with cuts in local business taxes that the current government has had to suspend because they could not be afforded.

The RN would also scrap a 2023 increase in the retirement age to 64 from 62, replacing it with a more progressive system which remains to be specified. The party says it would stick with existing plans to cut the budget deficit in line with France's commitments to EU partners.

Targeting welfare spending on foreign citizens and cutting red tape, the RN has pledged to go head with 20 billion in budget savings this and next year, which the current government has struggled to come up with and detail.

It further wants to renegotiate the European Central Bank's mandate to give it a new focus on jobs, productivity and financing long-term projects.

LEFT-WING NEW POPULAR FRONT

The New Popular Front (NFP) alliance says its first moves would include a 10% civil servant pay hike, providing free school lunches, supplies and transport while raising housing subsidies by 10%.

It says that it can cover the cost by raising 15 billion euros with a tax on superprofits, which remains to be detailed, and reinstating a wealth tax on financial assets, also for 15 billion euros.

Additionally the group wants to freeze prices of basic food items and energy while raising the minimum wage by 14% with subsidies for small firms that cannot otherwise cope.

The alliance would then in 2025 hire more teachers and healthcare workers, step up home insulation with subsidies, boosting public spending by an additional 100 billion euros.

It says the cost would be covered by closing tax loopholes, making income tax much more progressive, restoring the wealth tax on financial assets and setting a maximum inheritance for families of 12 million euros.

From 2026, public spending would reach 150 billion euros annually, notably by increasing the culture and sports ministries' budgets to 1% of GDP.

The NFP would also scrap the 2023 increase in the retirement age and wants to eventually reduce it to 60. The alliance says the extra spending would be financed by tax hikes and stronger growth, but it does not plan to reduce the budget deficit and rejects the EU's fiscal rules.

CENTRIST 'TOGETHER' ALLIANCE

While Macron's party is committed to cutting the budget deficit to 3% of GDP by 2027, institutions from the national auditor to the IMF had serious doubts even before the snap election was called.

Since then, the party has pledged to cut power bills by 15% from 2025 and to match pension hikes to increases in inflation. It says that it will raise public sector wages, but its program does not say by how much.

The party remains committed to no broad tax hikes and will increase the amount parents can gift children tax-free.