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Amazon: Saudi Arabia, UAE Have Fastest Growing E-Commerce

Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President of Amazon for the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye
Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President of Amazon for the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye
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Amazon: Saudi Arabia, UAE Have Fastest Growing E-Commerce

Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President of Amazon for the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye
Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President of Amazon for the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye

Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President of Amazon for the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye, noted that e-commerce in the region is evolving rapidly, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE as the fastest-growing markets, where the number of online shoppers has doubled over the past two years.

Speaking with Asharq Al-Awsat during Amazon’s participation in the eighth annual Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, Mouchawar highlighted significant growth in regional e-commerce, which is projected to reach a market value of $260 billion by 2029, driven by accelerating digital transformation, according to Mordor Intelligence.

He explained that about 70% of the region’s population is under the age of 40, boosting the adoption of digital technologies. The region also has one of the world’s highest smartphone penetration rates, with internet access at 99%.

Features like “Buy Now, Pay Later” and digital wallets are making online shopping more convenient. Generative AI is particularly enhancing customer experience and driving business growth, with PwC forecasting that AI will contribute $320 billion to the Middle East economy by 2030, equating to around 11% of the region’s GDP.

Mouchawar emphasized that fintech is driving major shifts in digital commerce by enabling flexible, easy-to-use payment options that enhance customer convenience. He added that governments in the Middle East and North Africa are supporting digital growth with large-scale investments.

He also discussed initiatives like Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which is accelerating the adoption of smart technology and supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to increase their contribution to GDP to 35% by the decade’s end.

Mouchawar shared Amazon’s collaboration with Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Monsha’at) to empower 40,000 SMEs by 2025. Last year, Amazon launched the Amazon Academy in Saudi Arabia, aligning with Vision 2030’s Human Capability Development Program.

He noted that around 43% of all startup funding in the region comes from Saudi Arabia, reflecting the promising opportunities for startups and tech entrepreneurs. By the end of 2023, the number of SMEs in Saudi Arabia surpassed 1.3 million, marking a 200% increase since the launch of Vision 2030. In 2022, Amazon partnered with Monsha’at to host 40,000 SMEs on its platform by 2025.

According to Mouchawar, Saudi Arabia is continuously investing in strengthening its digital infrastructure and embracing technologies like AI and big data analytics, which are improving customer experience, enhancing supply chains, and advancing logistics infrastructure. Additionally, the government announced plans this year for a $40 billion investment fund to support AI development.

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China Condemns EU’s Inclusion of Chinese Entities in Sanctions Package Against Russia

People gather at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China), in Beijing, China April 24, 2026. (Reuters)
People gather at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China), in Beijing, China April 24, 2026. (Reuters)
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China Condemns EU’s Inclusion of Chinese Entities in Sanctions Package Against Russia

People gather at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China), in Beijing, China April 24, 2026. (Reuters)
People gather at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China), in Beijing, China April 24, 2026. (Reuters)

China's commerce ministry on Saturday expressed "firm opposition" to the European Union's inclusion of Chinese entities in its 20th round of sanctions against Russia, demanding their immediate removal from ‌the list.

The ‌EU sanctions ‌package ⁠targets third-country suppliers ⁠of critical high-tech items, including China-based entities accused of providing dual-use goods or weapons systems to Russia's military-industrial ⁠complex.

The move "runs counter ‌to ‌the spirit of the ‌consensus reached between Chinese ‌and EU leaders, and seriously undermines mutual trust and the overall stability of ‌bilateral relations", a spokesperson for China's commerce ⁠ministry ⁠said in a statement.

The ministry warned it would take "necessary measures" to protect Chinese companies and said "all consequences will be borne by the EU side," the statement added.

Business

US State Dept Orders Global Warning About Alleged AI Thefts by DeepSeek, Other Chinese Firms

The logo of DeepSeek is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. (AFP)
The logo of DeepSeek is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. (AFP)
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US State Dept Orders Global Warning About Alleged AI Thefts by DeepSeek, Other Chinese Firms

The logo of DeepSeek is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. (AFP)
The logo of DeepSeek is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. (AFP)

The US State Department has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it says are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including AI startup DeepSeek, to steal intellectual property from US artificial intelligence labs, according to a diplomatic cable seen by Reuters.

The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about "concerns over adversaries' extraction and distillation of US A.I. models."

"A separate demarche request and message has been sent to Beijing for raising with China," the document states.

Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more ‌expensive ones as ‌part of an effort to lower the costs of training a ‌powerful ⁠new AI tool.

This ⁠week, the White House made similar accusations, but the cable has not been previously reported. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that DeepSeek was targeting the ChatGPT maker and the nation's leading AI companies to replicate models and use them for its own training, Reuters reported in February.

CHINA REJECTS ACCUSATIONS

The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Friday reiterated its stance that the accusations are baseless.

"The allegations that Chinese entities are stealing American AI intellectual property are ⁠groundless and are deliberate attacks on China's development and progress in the ‌AI industry," it said in a statement to Reuters.

DeepSeek, whose ‌low-cost AI model stunned the world last year, on Friday launched a preview of a highly anticipated ‌new model, called the V4, adapted for Huawei chip technology, underlining China's growing autonomy in the ‌sector.

DeepSeek also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, it has said that its V3 model used data naturally occurring and collected through web crawling and it had not intentionally used synthetic data generated by OpenAI.

Many Western and some Asian governments have banned their institutions and officials from using ‌DeepSeek, citing data privacy concerns. Nevertheless, DeepSeek's models have consistently been among the most used on international platforms that host open-source models.

The State Department ⁠cable said its purpose ⁠was to "warn of the risks of utilizing AI models distilled from US proprietary AI models, and lay the groundwork for potential follow-up and outreach by the US government."

It also mentioned Chinese AI firms Moonshot AI and MiniMax . Neither company immediately responded to a request for comment.

The cable said that "AI models developed from surreptitious, unauthorized distillation campaigns enable foreign actors to release products that appear to perform comparably on select benchmarks at a fraction of the cost but do not replicate the full performance of the original system."

It added that the campaigns also "deliberately strip security protocols from the resulting models and undo mechanisms that ensure those AI models are ideologically neutral and truth-seeking."

The White House accusations and the cable come just weeks before US President Donald Trump is set to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. They could well raise tensions in a long-running tech war between the rival superpowers, which had been lowered by a detente brokered last October.

Business

Bessent Rules Out Renewal of Iranian and Russian Oil Waivers

US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent testifies during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 'A Review of the President's FY2027 Budget Request for the Department of the Treasury' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 22 April 2026. (EPA)
US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent testifies during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 'A Review of the President's FY2027 Budget Request for the Department of the Treasury' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 22 April 2026. (EPA)
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Bessent Rules Out Renewal of Iranian and Russian Oil Waivers

US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent testifies during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 'A Review of the President's FY2027 Budget Request for the Department of the Treasury' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 22 April 2026. (EPA)
US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent testifies during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 'A Review of the President's FY2027 Budget Request for the Department of the Treasury' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 22 April 2026. (EPA)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that the US does not plan to renew a waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products that are currently at sea.

He also said a renewal of a one-time waiver for Iranian oil at sea is totally off the table.

“Not the Iranians,” Bessent told The Associated Press. “We have the blockade, and there’s no oil coming out.”

In an AP interview about the impact of the war on the global energy market and other topics, Bessent also said he had no plans to extend the sanctions relief for Russia.

“I wouldn’t imagine that we’d have another extension. I think the Russian oil on the water has been largely sucked up,” he said.