MODON Sets Smart Technology Transformation Strategy for Saudi Industrial Environment

MODON establishes a strategy to help transform Saudi Arabia into a promising industrial powerhouse. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
MODON establishes a strategy to help transform Saudi Arabia into a promising industrial powerhouse. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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MODON Sets Smart Technology Transformation Strategy for Saudi Industrial Environment

MODON establishes a strategy to help transform Saudi Arabia into a promising industrial powerhouse. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
MODON establishes a strategy to help transform Saudi Arabia into a promising industrial powerhouse. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Over the last year, the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (MODON) has been working under a strategy in harmony with the programs listed in the Kingdom’s plan for national transformation, Vision 2030.

Some of the core objectives of the plan are to transform Saudi Arabia into a promising industrial powerhouse, a global logistics platform and achieve sustainable and balanced development in the Kingdom.

Vision 2030 also promotes activating innovative technical transformation in the business environment of the industrial cities in the country.

In its latest report, MODON revealed it had established a strategy that paves the way towards the vision of it becoming an enabling industrial environment powered by smart technology transformation. This will aid in MODON contributing to the growth of the national economy.

MODON is working in collaboration with the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP) towards realizing the abovementioned goals.

The authority also contributes to developing non-oil revenues, generating new job opportunities, stimulating the private sector, and providing a safe environment for investors.

Also, it follows a unified framework that enhances coordination and control over performance, projects, and initiatives.

This method helps in achieving strategic goals, reducing risks, and contributing to increasing chances of success.

It does so through the governance of initiatives and projects and facilitating coordination with relevant authorities.

The authority works to ensure the smooth running of initiatives and offers a continuous follow-up to their implementation. It oversees stakeholder participation, corrective action, continuous improvement, and development of the plan’s outputs.

MODON was initially launched to adapt to the local and global variables and meet the growing needs for the primary environment required for the Kingdom’s industrial development.

The authority was also established to fulfill the future requirements and help the private sector play a more significant role in the development, operation and management of facilities and services.



Pakistan PM Sharif Calls for Expansion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative

 Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif receives the Chinese Premier Li Qiang, at the venue of the 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on the Council of Heads of Government Meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan October 16, 2024. Press Information Department (PID)/Handout via Reuters
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif receives the Chinese Premier Li Qiang, at the venue of the 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on the Council of Heads of Government Meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan October 16, 2024. Press Information Department (PID)/Handout via Reuters
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Pakistan PM Sharif Calls for Expansion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative

 Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif receives the Chinese Premier Li Qiang, at the venue of the 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on the Council of Heads of Government Meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan October 16, 2024. Press Information Department (PID)/Handout via Reuters
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif receives the Chinese Premier Li Qiang, at the venue of the 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on the Council of Heads of Government Meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan October 16, 2024. Press Information Department (PID)/Handout via Reuters

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on Wednesday for the expansion of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to enhance regional cooperation.

He was addressing a heads of government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a Eurasian security and political group formed in 2001, being held in Islamabad and attended by officials from 11 countries, including host Pakistan, China, Russia and India.

"Flagship projects like the Belt and Road Initiative of President Xi Jinping...should be expanded focusing on developing road, rail and digital infrastructure that enhances integration and cooperation across our region," Sharif said in his speech as the chair of the meeting.

The BRI is a $1 trillion plan for global infrastructure and energy networks that China launched a decade ago to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through land and maritime routes. Beijing's rivals see the BRI as a tool for China to spread its geopolitical and economic influence.

Western countries, under the G7 platform, last year announced a $600 billion plans to launch a rival connectivity infrastructure development plan. BRI has also been criticized for increasing unsustainable debt in developing countries.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a part of the BRI and has seen Beijing pump in billions of dollars into the South Asian country for road networks, a strategic port and an airport.

Sharif said CPEC would also help enhance cooperation, adding that 40 percent of the world's population lived in SCO's 10 full member states.

The SCO meeting is the highest-profile event hosted by the troubled South Asian nation in years. Seven prime ministers are attending, including Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

Sharif also said stability in neighboring Afghanistan, which lies between South and Central Asia, was essential to fully realizing trade opportunities for the SCO member states.

Also in attendance is India' External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who is the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in nearly a decade with ties between the nuclear-armed rival neighbors continuing to be frosty.