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World Bank: Saudi Arabia Leads Arab World in Advancing Women's Workforce Participation

Safaa El-Kogali, the World Bank's Country Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Safaa El-Kogali, the World Bank's Country Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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World Bank: Saudi Arabia Leads Arab World in Advancing Women's Workforce Participation

Safaa El-Kogali, the World Bank's Country Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Safaa El-Kogali, the World Bank's Country Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Asharq Al-Awsat)

In a pivotal era marked by remarkable advancements in the economic involvement of women in the Gulf, specifically in Saudi Arabia, Safaa El-Kogali, the World Bank's Country Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, underscores the pivotal role of implementing precise policies and programs.

These measures, she contends, are crucial for fostering and sustaining the escalating participation of women in the workforce.

“Firstly, there has been a shift in economic and financial expectations from previous reports,” said El-Kogali as she addressed the novel aspects of this year’s report on women’s employment.

“Secondly, the report includes a new section on women’s participation in the workforce, highlighting a noticeable increase in female participation in the labor force in GCC countries over the past decade,” she added.

However, according to El-Kogali, no country in the GCC or the wider Middle East and North Africa region has experienced such a rapid increase in such a short period as witnessed in Saudi Arabia.

The report delves into developments in Saudi Arabia, where female participation in the workforce more than doubled between 2017 and 2023, rising from 17.4% to 36%.

“It is crucial to note that this increase encompasses various age groups and educational levels, contributing to a decline in overall unemployment rates, particularly among Saudi women,” El-Kogali explained, adding that “the majority of jobs held by Saudi women were in the private sector and spanned across all sectors.”

Attributing the rise in women’s contribution in the Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia, to three factors, El-Kogali emphasizes that social norms surrounding women’s workforce participation were ready for change due to shifts in societal attitudes, reinforced by the government’s strong commitment and a robust communication campaign regarding women’s economic empowerment.

Moreover, major legal reforms facilitated more women joining the workforce, with new programs promoting women’s employment paving the way for increased female participation.

Another factor, according to El-Kogali, is the structural economic changes that generated a necessary demand for labor from companies willing to hire women.

She noted that the coronavirus pandemic acted as a positive catalyst for the demand for female Saudi workers, creating a fundamental driver for rapid transformation.

On her expectations for the future increase in women’s contribution to the Saudi economy, El-Kogali said: “I am convinced that the changes we have witnessed in recent years are not temporary.”

“The shift is evident across all age groups – it's not just young Saudi women who are more willing to enter the workforce, but also their mothers,” she affirmed.

Highlighting that Saudi women predominantly turn to the private sector across various industries, El-Kogali emphasizes the importance of solidifying policies and programs to sustain the trend of increasing women’s participation in the workforce.

Regarding the necessary steps to maximize Saudi economic contribution, El-Kogali stressed that Saudi Arabia has made significant strides in achieving its goals over the past two years, implementing structural reforms as a testament to the government’s commitment and determination.

“The success achieved in rapidly increasing women’s participation in the workforce is just one example of what the Kingdom is doing, laying the groundwork for its desired goals,” said El-Kogali.

“Similarly, we observe a divergence between the oil and non-oil sectors in Saudi Arabia, with the oil sector contracting by 8.4%, while the latter expands by 4.3%, showcasing robust efforts in economic diversification,” she highlighted.

The Country Director also emphasized that current economic results in Saudi Arabia reflect the fruits of ongoing exceptional efforts within the diversification agenda aligned with the Kingdom’s national plan for transformation, “Vision 2030.”

El-Kogali underscored the importance of Saudi Arabia remaining committed to the path of reforms and diversification.

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Business

Sources: New Syria-Iraq Crude Pipeline Still Years Away

FILE PHOTO: A worker checks an oil pipeline at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq March 22, 2022. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A worker checks an oil pipeline at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq March 22, 2022. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File Photo
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Sources: New Syria-Iraq Crude Pipeline Still Years Away

FILE PHOTO: A worker checks an oil pipeline at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq March 22, 2022. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A worker checks an oil pipeline at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq March 22, 2022. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani/File Photo

Iraq's plans to export oil via a pipeline through Syria to avert future disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz will likely require four years of construction and cost at least $15 billion, sources with knowledge of the project told Reuters.

US officials and energy executives are billing the plan, which is receiving initial support for feasibility studies from a consortium including Chevron, as part of a strategy to reduce the industry's reliance on a waterway that has been largely shut by the Iran war.

"Over the next two years, the strait is going to become irrelevant. It is going to become just another body of water," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week.

While a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas was shipped through Hormuz before the conflict, Bessent said "more than 50% or 70%" of those exports would instead be exported via underground pipelines.

But two sources directly involved in ‌the project told Reuters ‌the plans for the Iraq-Syria pipeline would take twice that long due to the need ‌for ⁠new infrastructure and ⁠could face other hurdles.

Both sources asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

NEW INFRASTRUCTURE TO REPLACE EXISTING WAR-DAMAGED PIPELINE

Iraq has been among the countries most affected by the Hormuz shutdown.

It exported around 3.6 million barrels of oil per day before the war, mainly through Gulf terminals near Basra, but shipped just 35.5 million barrels in total via Hormuz in July, according to state-run oil firm SOMO.

A pipeline linking Iraq's northern Kirkuk region to Syria's Mediterranean port of Banias already exists but was badly damaged by wars in Iraq and Syria and has not been in regular use since the 1980s.

Both sources said the plan would require laying entirely ⁠new infrastructure rather than rehabilitating the existing pipeline and cost at least $15 billion.

While part of the ‌new pipeline would run largely along the same Kirkuk-Banias route, intact sections of ‌that pipeline are not compatible with newly developed specifications and would be unusable, one of the sources said.

The second source said the project ‌would include developing an entirely new integrated crude oil pipeline system that would link Iraq's southern and northern fields to a ‌central hub in Haditha in western Iraq, then onwards to Banias.

The US has welcomed the "rehabilitation and reconstruction" of the pipeline, saying it will have initial transport capacity of 2 million bpd of crude oil.

That would imply a major expansion of the old pipeline's capacity of about 300,000 bpd, which is less than a tenth of the oil volume Iraq exported through the Strait of Hormuz before the Iran war. Iraq has also ‌restarted oil exports from its Kirkuk fields via pipeline to Türkiye’s Ceyhan port with targeted capacity of around 250,000 bpd.

Both sources said work on the Iraq-Syria pipeline would take around ⁠four years, though one added ⁠that the timeline may also need to accommodate clearing old infrastructure and acquiring fresh land use rights from Syria's new administration.

ANOTHER POSSIBLE 'ACCESS TO MARKET' BUT STUDIES STILL NEEDED

Syria and Iraq have both signed separate memorandums of understanding with a consortium comprised of US major Chevron, TI Capital and Qatar's UCC Holding to carry out technical and financial studies in preparation for the project.

Iraq's oil ministry and state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the project and the sources' timeline and cost assessments. TI Capital and UCC Holding did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chevron pointed to an earlier statement about the preliminary agreement and said it does not comment on details related to commercial matters.

During a press briefing last month, a Chevron executive said the project could offer "another access route to market" through the Mediterranean. The executive said any pipeline would also need to connect to Iraq's southern fields of West Qurna 2 and Nassiriya, which Chevron is in negotiations to enter.

Chevron still needs to complete technical studies to determine whether the existing Iraq-Syria pipeline would need refitting, expanding or rebuilding, the executive said.

The company has not yet given estimates of the project's future export capacity.

"Usually, as these pipelines go, it's not 100% capacity available on day one," the executive said.

Business

China Leads Wave of Clean Power Wastage as Grids Globally Hit Limits

Solar panels at the Dalad Banner Photovaltic Base in Kubuqi desert during organized media tour, in Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, June 12, 2026. (Reuters)
Solar panels at the Dalad Banner Photovaltic Base in Kubuqi desert during organized media tour, in Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, June 12, 2026. (Reuters)
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China Leads Wave of Clean Power Wastage as Grids Globally Hit Limits

Solar panels at the Dalad Banner Photovaltic Base in Kubuqi desert during organized media tour, in Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, June 12, 2026. (Reuters)
Solar panels at the Dalad Banner Photovaltic Base in Kubuqi desert during organized media tour, in Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, June 12, 2026. (Reuters)

China turned away enough clean energy to power Mexico for a year in the six months through June as its grids hit their limits, while networks in many other nations such as Australia and Japan also failed to keep pace with a surging renewables buildout.

Curtailments, or the pre-emptive rejection of wind or solar power because a grid reaches capacity, are emerging as a growing challenge to renewables globally and underscore continued reliance on fossil fuels.

China, the world's top producer of solar power, rejected 360 terawatt-hours (TWh) of clean power from January to June, up 49% from the same period a year earlier, according to a report this month by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and the Center for Research on ‌Energy and Clean ‌Air (CREA).

The report's estimates for curtailments far exceed figures given by the Chinese ‌government.

Insufficient ⁠transmission infrastructure and ⁠supply contracts that guarantee operations of newly built coal-fired power plants in China are forcing the rejection of abundant renewable output, analysts say.

"Curtailment in China is structural, not a temporary bottleneck. We expect curtailment pressure to continue through the rest of this decade," said Yuan Ren, analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

Curtailments, along with a new policy that removes a guaranteed fixed price for renewables, have contributed to a 66% drop in new solar installations this year in China. At the same time, China's coal-fired power generation is expected to rise again this year, reversing a first-in-a-decade ⁠decline.

CURTAILMENTS AFFECTING RENEWABLE INVESTMENTS

China's National Energy Administration, which stopped publishing monthly data on ‌curtailment by province in March, said in a statement last ‌month that 8.6% of the country's solar output and 9.1% of its wind output were curtailed in the first half ‌of 2026.

But GEM and CREA estimate China rejected 26.1% of its total wind and solar output in ‌the six months through June, using weather-adjusted data to account for unreported curtailment.

The National Energy Administration did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

With curtailment worsening, it's harder "to do pre-assessment of the financial viability of projects," said Shawn Shuwei Zhang, chief economist at Beijing-based consultancy Draworld Environment Institute.

Clean power investments are already shifting from standalone solar projects towards solar-plus-storage ‌to reduce exposure to curtailment, Wood Mackenzie's Ren said.

CURTAILMENT RISING GLOBALLY

Rising curtailment extends beyond China, to the rest of the Asia Pacific and Europe.

In Australia's ⁠National Electricity Market, curtailments surged ⁠37% to 2.93 TWh, or 7% of its wind and solar output, in the first half of 2026, while Japan's grid rejected 2.35 TWh — a jump of 34% and representing 4% of renewable output, data from their electricity markets showed.

India, the No.3 global solar generator, curtailed 8.13 TWh of solar power in the quarter ended June, its renewable energy minister said. That accounts for 14% of its solar output in the three months through June, grid data showed.

That compared with March quarter curtailment of 0.47 TWh of renewable output that includes both solar and wind, according to energy think tank Ember. Indian solar generation is, however, typically much higher in the June quarter, meaning curtailments will be higher too.

Efficient deployment and an immediate scale-up of battery storage could help stall curtailment globally, Ember analyst Kostantsa Rangelova said, adding that Bulgaria and Chile provided effective models that could be emulated.

"Chile added 4 GWh of batteries in 2025, more than doubling its installed capacity. Most of this new storage was co-located with solar plants, helping reduce curtailment," Rangelova said.

Business

Riyadh Opens Second Real Estate Balance Program With Land Price Cap

Residential neighborhoods in the Saudi capital, Riyadh (SPA) 
Residential neighborhoods in the Saudi capital, Riyadh (SPA) 
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Riyadh Opens Second Real Estate Balance Program With Land Price Cap

Residential neighborhoods in the Saudi capital, Riyadh (SPA) 
Residential neighborhoods in the Saudi capital, Riyadh (SPA) 

Riyadh’s real estate market entered a new phase Sunday with applications opening for the second round of the Real Estate Balance Program.

Overseen by the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC), the program aims to provide between 10,000 and 40,000 developed and planned residential plots annually over the next five years, at prices not exceeding SR1,500 per square meter.

The Real Estate Balance Platform aims to help balance the real estate market and increase homeownership among eligible beneficiaries in Riyadh.

It also seeks to ensure fair distribution and maintain a balance between supply and demand in the city's residential real estate market.

The Royal Commission for Riyadh City announced last week that applications for the program’s second year would be accepted from Aug. 16 through Sept. 15 via its online platform. The initiative follows directives from Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman to take measures to restore balance to the capital’s real estate sector.

As the program expands, its potential to influence the broader market is growing. Prices set for land offered through the initiative provide a new benchmark for homebuyers and an alternative to conventional market listings, increasing competition and potentially prompting landowners and real estate agencies to reassess asking prices.

The program is part of broader government efforts to increase Riyadh’s real estate supply and develop unused land, helping bring supply and demand into better balance as the capital experiences rapid population and economic growth.

Real estate specialists say the second round could help narrow the gap between asking prices and what buyers can afford. Its impact could extend beyond direct beneficiaries because increasing the supply of land at predetermined prices puts competitive pressure on other sellers, particularly in areas where comparable alternatives are available.

Khalid Al-Jasser, a real estate specialist and chairman of Amaken International Group, previously told Asharq Al-Awsat that the program’s impact extends beyond the land market to financing, construction, building materials and housing-related services.

Its strength, he argued, lies not only in offering land at set prices but in addressing the underlying problem by increasing supply. A larger, more orderly supply of residential land gives citizens more choices and reduces the ability of scarcity to drive prices higher.

Real estate developer Ahmed Omar Basodan described the program’s continuation for a second year as an important signal that tackling high housing costs requires a sustained approach rather than a temporary measure.

As Riyadh grows rapidly, residential supply must continually keep pace with demographic and economic expansion, he noted. The program’s most significant effect could ultimately be a shift in market behavior by reducing expectations that land scarcity will continue indefinitely to support higher prices.