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Kearney: Saudi Cities Continue to Improve Global Performance Thanks to Infrastructure, Innovation

 Aerial view of Saudi capital, Riyadh (SPA) 
 Aerial view of Saudi capital, Riyadh (SPA) 
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Kearney: Saudi Cities Continue to Improve Global Performance Thanks to Infrastructure, Innovation

 Aerial view of Saudi capital, Riyadh (SPA) 
 Aerial view of Saudi capital, Riyadh (SPA) 

Management consultant Kearney’s Global Cities Report showed on Monday a significant improvement in the performance of Saudi cities on the international stage, underlining the rapid pace of transformation the Kingdom is witnessing under Vision 2030.

The report, based on the Global Cities Index (GCI) and Global Cities Outlook (GCO), highlighted the significant progress in Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah and Dammam, thanks to sustained investment in infrastructure, innovation, and livability.

GCI measures 158 cities across key dimensions like business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement, ultimately evaluating a city’s ability to attract, retain, and generate global flows of people, capital, and ideas.

Foreign Direct Investment Inflows

The Index found that Riyadh advanced eight places to 56th, and posted strong gains in personal well-being and continues to lead in Foreign Direct Investment inflows, reinforcing its role as the leading national magnet for global investment.

Jeddah achieved a 1-rank increase and is placed 83rd worldwide, benefiting from its growing commercial and cultural activity, and its rising role as a commercial and entrepreneurship hub.

Meanwhile, other Saudi cities such as Makkah, Madinah and Dammam significantly improved their rankings—reflecting the success of efforts to diversify development beyond the capital, the report showed.

Along the Index, GCO offers a forward-looking assessment, evaluating how effectively the world's leading metros are creating conditions for future success. It seeks to measure future potential across four dimensions: personal well-being, economics, innovation, and governance.

At this level, Riyadh, up eight places in the ranks, continues to lead the kingdom’s modernization efforts.

Jeddah's ranking jumped 39 places to reach 61, according to Kearney’s report. This improvement is a result of the city's performance in the report's analysis of socio-economic and political developments.

Balanced Regional Development

The report said each Saudi city is advancing in distinct ways.

Riyadh posted strong gains in personal well-being and continues to lead in FDI inflows, reinforcing its role as the leading national magnet for global investment.

Meanwhile, other Saudi cities such as Makkah (+40), Madinah (+41), and Dammam (+28) significantly improved their rankings—reflecting the success of efforts to diversify development beyond the capital.

The results also confirm that Saudi cities are making progress in transforming Vision 2030 targets into urban achievements, and are reshaping regional and global competitiveness through a strategy of diversification, innovation, and sustainability.

Rudolph Lohmeyer, a partner based in the Middle East, where he leads Kearney’s National Transformations Institute (NTI) and the International Affairs platform of the Government and Economic Development Practice, stated that Saudi cities' improved rankings in the GCI and GCO, demonstrate the success of investments in the Kingdom’s infrastructure, talent, and innovation.

 

 

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Business

Lebanon is Handing over an Assad-era General after War Crimes Questioning

(FILES) Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during a press conference with Iraq's Prime Minister in Damascus on July 16, 2023. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
(FILES) Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during a press conference with Iraq's Prime Minister in Damascus on July 16, 2023. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
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Lebanon is Handing over an Assad-era General after War Crimes Questioning

(FILES) Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during a press conference with Iraq's Prime Minister in Damascus on July 16, 2023. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
(FILES) Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during a press conference with Iraq's Prime Minister in Damascus on July 16, 2023. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

Lebanon’s judicial authorities have decided to hand over a former senior Syrian military officer under ousted President Bashar Assad to Damascus after questioning him over crimes he allegedly committed during the country’s conflict, officials said Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Adel Issa will be the first military officer to be handed over by Lebanon since Assad’s fall in late 2024. He is expected to stand trial in his home country. There were no immediate details on the alleged crimes.

The decision comes days after a vote in parliament that made Lebanon the first Arab country to abolish the death penalty, a step that will become formal once it is published in the Lebanese Official Gazette.

The judicial officials said Issa is being handed over to Syria in accordance with a 1951 agreement between the countries that calls for handing over suspected criminals.

On Tuesday afternoon, Issa was taken by members of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, who will drive him to a border crossing and hand him over to Syrian authorities, two judicial and two security officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

After Syrian fighters opposed to Assad marched into Damascus to end the Assad family's five-decade rule in December 2024, a number of military and security officers fled to Lebanon, where some remain.

Dozens of other former members of his security agencies accused of atrocities have been arrested and put on trial in Syria.

Last week, a Syrian court sentenced Assad and his younger brother Maher to death in absentia while their maternal cousin, Brig. Gen. Atef Najib, became the most senior security official to be sentenced to death while in custody. The Assad brothers fled to Russia during the ouster.

Issa was questioned last week by judge Ahmad Rami Hajj, Lebanon’s public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, over alleged crimes he had committed in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour and the northern province of Raqqa during Syria’s conflict that broke out in 2011.

The judicial officials told The Associated Press that Issa denied all the charges against him, saying he was a military officer carrying out orders.

The Syrian embassy in Beirut sent Issa’s charge sheet to Lebanese judicial authorities earlier this month, the officials said.

Issa was detained on Aug. 8 when he went to the Syrian embassy in Beirut for some paperwork. Embassy officials contacted Lebanon’s prosecutor’s office to tell them that Issa is wanted in Syria. He has been held at Beirut’s Palace of Justice detention center.

Issa had fled to Lebanon by crossing illegally after Assad’s fall, the officials said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said after commanding the Syrian army’s 17th Division, Issa was moved in 2015 to command ground forces in Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq, and that he retired in late 2016.

Syria’s conflict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 before turning into a civil war, left half a million people dead and over 1 million wounded.

Business

Aramco, Maaden Sign Joint Venture Agreement on Mineral Exploration, Hard-Rock Mining in Saudi Arabia

File photo of the Saudi flag - SPA
File photo of the Saudi flag - SPA
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Aramco, Maaden Sign Joint Venture Agreement on Mineral Exploration, Hard-Rock Mining in Saudi Arabia

File photo of the Saudi flag - SPA
File photo of the Saudi flag - SPA

Aramco and Maaden announced the signing of a shareholders’ agreement to form a Joint Venture (JV) to unlock new opportunities in mineral exploration and hard-rock mining in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Combining the strengths of two leaders in their respective fields, the JV would focus on copper and other minerals critical to the energy transition. The JV plans were first disclosed in January 2025.

The JV is expected to be owned 51% by Maaden and 49% by Aramco, and focus on exploration across Zone-4, also known as the Transition Zone, within the Arabian Platform. It represents a major new opportunity for mineral discovery in the Kingdom.

Spanning approximately 182,000 square kilometers, nearly 10% of Saudi Arabia’s total land area, the expected exploration area stretches along a 100-kilometer-wide zone running parallel to the Arabian Shield.

Aramco Vice President of Transition Minerals Saleh M. Al Saleh said: "Over 90 years, Aramco has accumulated and analyzed the largest amount of geological and geophysical data ever acquired in a single basin for the Kingdom. This partnership intends to leverage this legacy information to find minerals in the JV area within the basin. Maaden’s expertise, our people, high-performance computing, and AI are expected to play a pivotal role in accelerating the discovery of key transition minerals at low cost."

Maaden Executive Vice President for Exploration Darryl Clark said: “Maaden has been advancing one of the world’s largest single jurisdiction exploration programs across the Arabian Shield to help unlock the Kingdom’s mineral potential. This joint venture would take that ambition into a new area. By combining Maaden’s exploration and development expertise with Aramco’s extraordinary knowledge of the Arabian Platform, we would have an opportunity to move faster, explore smarter, and create new opportunities to discover the minerals that will power the energy transition.”

Copper, which is increasingly significant for electric vehicles, power networks, energy storage, and renewable energy systems, would be a main focus of the JV. Copper is a major metal making up over 20% of the $1.2 trillion mined metals market. The copper market is currently valued at approximately $250 billion and is projected to grow to over $400 billion by 2035. The JV would also explore for other energy transition minerals including zinc, lead, and rare earth elements that are expected to be crucial to industries of the future.

Leveraging advanced computational algorithms, AI, and high-performance computing, the JV intends to target areas most likely to contain copper and valuable minerals, accelerating the path from regional screening to target definition and discovery. This is expected to support long-term sector development, reinforce the Kingdom’s role in the global minerals value chain, and help meet rising demand for transition minerals.

The effectiveness of the shareholders’ agreement and the incorporation of the JV is conditional upon the fulfillment of certain condition precedents, including, but not limited to, obtaining all the required corporate and regulatory approvals and antitrust clearance.

Business

Gold Slips on Firmer Treasury Yields, Oil Prices; Fed Minutes in Focus

An employee displays a gold necklace at a jewelry store in Varanasi, India (AFP)
An employee displays a gold necklace at a jewelry store in Varanasi, India (AFP)
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Gold Slips on Firmer Treasury Yields, Oil Prices; Fed Minutes in Focus

An employee displays a gold necklace at a jewelry store in Varanasi, India (AFP)
An employee displays a gold necklace at a jewelry store in Varanasi, India (AFP)

Gold fell on Tuesday, pressured by higher Treasury yields and oil prices, while traders awaited minutes of the US Federal Reserve's July policy meeting for clues on the outlook for interest rates.

Spot gold was down 0.4% to $4,397.42 per ounce, as of 0624 GMT, while US gold futures for December delivery dropped 0.5% to $4,452.90. Yields ‌on the benchmark ‌10-year US Treasury note extended gains, raising ‌the ⁠opportunity cost of holding ⁠non-yielding bullion.

Oil prices edged higher after Iran said it would shift to a "fully offensive" military posture following a breakdown in efforts to negotiate a permanent end to the war with the United States, while Washington ruled out extending a temporary ceasefire agreement.

Oil prices will remain one ⁠of the key factors keeping gold under ‌pressure as the situation in ‌the Middle East continues to look uncertain, ANZ analyst Soni ‌Kumari said.

Traders' expectations around Fed policy rates are ‌going to be important for gold, with a focus on technical levels, Kumari added.

Elevated energy prices tend to raise inflationary fears and bolster expectations of higher interest rates. While gold is typically seen ‌as a hedge against inflation, higher interest rates tend to diminish bullion's appeal.

However, market ⁠pricing for ⁠a September quarter-point hike flipped to a nearly 65% chance of a "hold" after unexpected job losses in July, lower-than-expected consumer price inflation and weaker retail sales.

Investors are also awaiting minutes of the Fed's most recent policy meeting, with the release scheduled for Wednesday.

Spot gold may test support at $4,381, a break below which could open the way towards the $4,320 to $4,351 range, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao. Among other metals, spot silver slipped 0.7% to $65.32 per ounce, platinum lost 0.6% to $1,759.63 and palladium dipped 0.6% to $1,325.47.