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HCI Conference: Preparing a Generation for Tech Challenges

The Human Capability Initiative (HCI) conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Human Capability Initiative (HCI) conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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HCI Conference: Preparing a Generation for Tech Challenges

The Human Capability Initiative (HCI) conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Human Capability Initiative (HCI) conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Human Capability Initiative (HCI) conference, held over two days in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, focused on preparing the next generation to tackle modern technologies like artificial intelligence.

Sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the event aimed to find sustainable funding for education and strengthen public-private partnerships.

During the conference, Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih announced licenses for 450 international investors to set up regional headquarters in the Kingdom.

He highlighted a significant increase in international licenses since the launch of Saudi Arabia’s national transformation plan, “Vision 2030.”

Al-Falih revealed that the number of licenses for international investments in Saudi Arabia has increased from 3,000 at the beginning of the vision to 30,000 business licenses, stressing the Kingdom’s commitment to creating the best conditions for investors to develop skills and learn to enhance innovation and entrepreneurship and to consolidate the growth of the private sector.

Al-Falih also shared plans to double the economy by the end of the decade, with a focus on increasing partnerships with the private sector.

“By the end of this decade, our economy aims to be two and a half times larger than what it was before the beginning of Vision 2030,” said Al-Falih while noting that the private sector’s participation in the economy will jump from 40 % to more than 65 % and the size of the private sector will be four times higher than that of its current size.

He outlined a target of adding over $3 trillion in investments, with a focus on new sectors like digital economy, tourism, finance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.

Al-Falih emphasized that these investments will create huge opportunities for skill development.

He pointed out that as new sectors like renewable energy and biotechnology emerge, skill gaps will be filled through training, ensuring the Kingdom has a skilled workforce ready for deployment.

Al-Falih pointed out that Vision 2030 is the most comprehensive transformation in the Kingdom’s history.

“We are transforming and developing our economy into a green economy and enhancing the business environment and our international competitiveness,” said the minister.

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Trump Says he’s Terminating Trade Talks with Canada over Tax on Tech Firms

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a press conference during a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a press conference during a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville
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Trump Says he’s Terminating Trade Talks with Canada over Tax on Tech Firms

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a press conference during a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a press conference during a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville

President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.”

Trump, in a post on his social media network, said Canada had just informed

the US that it was sticking to its plan to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada. The tax is set to go into effect Monday.

“Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period,” Trump said in his post.

Trump’s announcement was the latest swerve in the trade war he’s launched since taking office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster, starting with the US president poking at the nation’s northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it would be absorbed as a US state.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday that his country would “continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians. It’s a negotiation.”

Trump later said he expects that Canada will remove the tax, The Associated Press reported.

“Economically we have such power over Canada. We’d rather not use it,” Trump said in the Oval Office. "It’s not going to work out well for Canada. They were foolish to do it.”

When asked if Canada could do anything to restart talks, he suggested Canada could remove the tax, predicted it will but said, “It doesn’t matter to me.”

Carney visited Trump in May at the White House, where he was polite but firm. Trump last week traveled to Canada for the G7 summit in Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the US had set a 30-day deadline for trade talks.

The digital services tax will hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3% levy on revenue from Canadian users. It will apply retroactively, leaving US companies with a $2 billion US bill due at the end of the month.

“We appreciate the Administration’s decisive response to Canada’s discriminatory tax on U.S. digital exports,” Matt Schruers, chief executive of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, said in a statement.

Canada and the US have been discussing easing a series of steep tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America’s neighbor.

The Republican president earlier told reporters that the US was soon preparing to send letters to different countries, informing them of the new tariff rate his administration would impose on them.

Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25% tariffs on autos. He is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period he set would expire.

Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25% that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, though some products are still protected under the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump’s first term.

Addressing reporters after a private meeting with Republican senators Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to comment on news that Trump had ended trade talks with Canada.

“I was in the meeting,” Bessent said before moving on to the next question.
About 60% of US crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of US electricity imports as well.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the US and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager to obtain.

About 80% of Canada’s exports go to the US.

Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said it is a domestic tax issue, but it has been a source of tensions between Canada and the United States for a while because it targets US tech giants.

“The Digital Services Tax Act was signed into law a year ago so the advent of this new tax has been known for a long time,” Beland said. "Yet, President Trump waited just before its implementation to create drama over it in the context of ongoing and highly uncertain trade negotiations between the two countries.”