SIDF Stimulates Small Businesses, Entrepreneurships

Saudi Arabia supports small and medium businesses and entrepreneurships. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia supports small and medium businesses and entrepreneurships. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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SIDF Stimulates Small Businesses, Entrepreneurships

Saudi Arabia supports small and medium businesses and entrepreneurships. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia supports small and medium businesses and entrepreneurships. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Saudi Industrial and Development Fund (SIDF) has been seeking to stimulate small and medium enterprises by financing projects in the manufacturing sector within Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

In order to promote the industrial sector and provide it with its financial needs, the SIDF has provided a package of innovative specialized financing programs with many payment facilities.

The Fund adopted “Mutajadida” (renewable) program, which aims to achieve national aspirations in this field by building sustainable industrial utilities for renewable energy, stimulating production projects to serve the industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors, and raising the quality of products specialized in solar and wind energy, and aligning them with local and global demand.

The SIDF has also launched the “Afaaq” (Horizons) program, which contributes to the growth and motivation of small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs through early financing with payment facilities.

Another program, called “Tawtin” (nationalization), seeks to raise the level of spending to maximize local content by supporting existing national products.

The Saudi Industrial Development Fund is the main financial supporter of the sectors of industry, mining, energy and logistic services listed under the National Industry and Logistics Services Development Program (NDLP).

This will support Saudi Arabia’s transformation into a major industrial power, and a global logistical platform, as one of the most important targets of Vision 2030.

The Fund has approved loans worth SAR 12.5 billion riyals (USD 3.3 billion) during the 2019 fiscal year, with an increase of 32 percent compared to 2018.



Washington Urges Israel to Extend Cooperation with Palestinian Banks

A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)
A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)
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Washington Urges Israel to Extend Cooperation with Palestinian Banks

A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)
A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)

The United States on Thursday called on Israel to extend its cooperation with Palestinian banks for another year, to avoid blocking vital transactions in the occupied West Bank.

"I am glad that Israel has allowed its banks to continue cooperating with Palestinian banks, but I remain convinced that a one-year extension of the waiver to facilitate this cooperation is needed," US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday, on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Rio de Janeiro.

In May, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to cut off a vital banking channel between Israel and the West Bank in response to three European countries recognizing the State of Palestine.

On June 30, however, Smotrich extended a waiver that allows cooperation between Israel's banking system and Palestinian banks in the occupied West Bank for four months, according to Israeli media, according to AFP.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported that the decision on the waiver was made at a cabinet meeting in a "move that saw Israel legalize several West Bank settlement outposts."

The waiver was due to expire at the end of June, and the extension permitted Israeli banks to process payments for salaries and services to the Palestinian Authority in shekels, averting a blow to a Palestinian economy already devastated by the war in Gaza.

The Israeli threat raised serious concerns in the United States, which said at the time it feared "a humanitarian crisis" if banking ties were cut.

According to Washington, these banking channels are key to nearly $8 billion of imports from Israel to the West Bank, including electricity, water, fuel and food.