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Largest Logistics Center in Saudi Ports Starts Operating

Saudi Arabia moves forward in implementing transformation strategy in the logistics and port service industry (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia moves forward in implementing transformation strategy in the logistics and port service industry (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Largest Logistics Center in Saudi Ports Starts Operating

Saudi Arabia moves forward in implementing transformation strategy in the logistics and port service industry (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Saudi Arabia moves forward in implementing transformation strategy in the logistics and port service industry (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Binzagr Company announced Tuesday that the Industrial Valley in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) started the trial phase for the largest integrated logistics center in the Kingdom worth more than one billion riyals ($266,600).

Saudi Arabia has been working to expand its ports and establish logistics centers to facilitate import and export.

The center is one of the largest in the region, with an area of 97,000 square meters and a capacity of more than 110,000 pallets for storing medical and food products.

It includes 50-meter high shelves that operate automatically with the latest technologies for storing and rearranging goods, in addition to 56 gates to receive all types of trucks, and parking lots for 180 trucks at the same time to facilitate loading and unloading.

A strategic partnership has been concluded for storing and distributing medicines with the National Unified Procurement Company for Medical Supplies (NUPCO) and for storing Binzagr Company's food products as well as those for international companies in KAEC Industrial Valley.

Binzagr CEO Ahmed Binzagr announced that the center’s construction was in line with the latest international standards.

“It includes a mechanism to facilitate storage, distribution, transportation and value-added services.”

Binzagr also spoke of an area of more than 8,000 square meters for all customers to provide consumer products for the Saudi market.

KAEC CEO Ahmed bin Ibrahim Linjawy said Binzagr selected the Industrial Valley as the headquarters of its logistic services center because it is one of the largest logistics platforms in the Kingdom and a major advanced connection hub in international trade between the east and the west.

Linjawy pointed out that KAEC and its strategic sectors have become part of the Kingdom’s ambitious Vision 2030 by supporting the industrial sector and attracting foreign investments.

CEO of TAD Logistics Khalid al-Bawardi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the expansion of ports, the establishment of logistical centers and the simplification of import and export procedures are necessary to achieve Vision 2030’s objective to make the Kingdom a global logistics hub and help it advance in the global index of logistics services from 48th in the world to 25th, and become the first regionally.

This step will attract local and global investments, enable the Kingdom to create jobs and increase the contribution of the logistics sector to the GDP, Bawardi explained.

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UK Treasury Chief Heading to China to Revive Suspended Economic, Financial Talks

FILE PHOTO: Chancellor Rachel Reeves speaks to the media after a tour of Maidstone Hospital on December 10, 2024 in Maidstone, Britain. Dan Kitwood/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Chancellor Rachel Reeves speaks to the media after a tour of Maidstone Hospital on December 10, 2024 in Maidstone, Britain. Dan Kitwood/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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UK Treasury Chief Heading to China to Revive Suspended Economic, Financial Talks

FILE PHOTO: Chancellor Rachel Reeves speaks to the media after a tour of Maidstone Hospital on December 10, 2024 in Maidstone, Britain. Dan Kitwood/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Chancellor Rachel Reeves speaks to the media after a tour of Maidstone Hospital on December 10, 2024 in Maidstone, Britain. Dan Kitwood/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Britain's Treasury chief is travelling to China this weekend to discuss economic and financial cooperation between the countries, as the UK's Labour government seeks to reset strained ties with Beijing.
The Treasury said Friday that Rachel Reeves will travel to Beijing and Shanghai and will meet with her Chinese government counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, Reuters reported.
Reeves' trip is expected to revive the China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue — annual bilateral talks that have been suspended since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and deteriorating relations in recent years.
A series of spying allegations from both sides, China’s support for Russia in the Ukraine war and a crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former British colony, have soured ties.
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and the UK Financial Conduct Authority's chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, are also in the delegation, according to the Treasury. Representatives from some of Britain’s biggest financial services firms will join the trip.
Officials did not provide details, but media reports have said senior executives from HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered were included.
Reeves' visit comes after Foreign Secretary David Lammy travelled to China in October and Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil in November.
The meetings form part of a bid by Starmer, who was elected as leader in July, to strengthen political and economic ties with China, the UK's fifth-largest trading partner.
Officials said Starmer wanted a “pragmatic” approach to working with Beijing on global stability, climate change and the transition to clean energy.
But some in the opposition Conservative Party have criticized his stance and said trade ties should not come at the expense of national security and human rights concerns.
British political leaders and intelligence chiefs have warned repeatedly of the security threats that China poses. Calls to tackle the challenge grew louder last month when it emerged that an alleged Chinese spy had cultivated close ties with Prince Andrew and carried out “covert and deceptive activity” for China's ruling Communist Party, according to officials.
Nevertheless, Lammy told reporters in London on Thursday that “there are many areas of trade that don’t impact on national security.”
He said Reeves “will repeat many of the messages that I took to China.”
“What we’ve said is in this complex relationship with a global superpower, we are guided by three Cs”: challenge, compete and cooperate, for example in areas including health and climate challenges, Lammy added.