A1SaudiArabia.com

JEDDAH – The Kingdom has recently embarked upon aggressive projects in its bid to repatriate capital and attract value-added foreign investments. King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, launched the first of its kind and the third economic city in the Kingdom in Madina in June 2006 as a part of the move to develop the Kingdoms regions in a high-tech manner.

The city of Jeddah, the Bride of the Red Sea and the gateway to the Two Holy Mosques, also has the potential to become a Knowledge City (KC), one in which the economy is driven by research, technology and brainpower, according to Dr. Amro A. Taibah, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Design (FED) at King Abdulaziz University here.

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JEDDAH – King Faisal University (KFU), a leading higher education institution in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), has adopted the International Computer Driving License (ICDL) program to enhance the information technology knowledge of its personnel in line with government initiatives to transform the country into a knowledge-based society.

KFU is renowned for integrating the latest information and communications technology (ICT) into its operations and services. ICDL Saudi Arabia, the governing body and the certification authority of the International Computer Driving License (ICDL) program in KSA, will train and certify KFU employees on basic computer skills and the practical use of common desktop applications. ICDL Saudi Arabia continues to coordinate with the countrys 24 local universities on the integration of ICDL modules into their academic programs.

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MADRID – The wreckage of Spains economic growth model stands neatly aligned on the roads leading out of Madrid – row after row of unsold houses, windows dark, for-sale signs out front.

Spain and other countries on Europes financially stricken fringe are groping for a new basis from economic growth to put people to work and pay down crushing deficits and debts. In Spains case, something to start generating jobs for 4 million unemployed people amid the rubble of an unsustainable construction and housing boom.

The question is especially urgent in countries with the eurozones messiest public finances: Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece.

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DUBLIN – The Irish government is expected to announce further bank bailout measures around the end of March.

So far it has nationalised Anglo Irish Bank and acquired minority stakes in Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland. This month it wants to start shifting property loans worth 80 billion euros into the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), a “bad bank”.

The discounted NAMA sales will prompt banks to raise additional capital, probably including further injections from the state, and it will also trigger consolidation in the industry.

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Following the introduction of tax neutrality laws to facilitate the issuance of sukuk by the UK, France and Luxembourg in recent weeks, Ireland is the latest European Union (EU) country to join the club. Under the Finance Bill 2010, which came into effect in January 2010, the Irish Ministry of Finance has introduced significant amendments to facilitate Islamic finance transactions in Ireland, especially the origination and issuance of sukuk.

Ireland, like other EU countries, is warming to Islamic finance and Dublin has emerged as an Islamic investment fund domicile rival to the Channel Islands and Luxembourg. Indeed several Shariah-compliant funds are registered there including the Oasis Crescent Global Equity Fund and the recently-launched CIMB Global Islamic Equity Fund. The Irish government is also keen to promote the island as a more attractive location for international fund raising operations in addition to providing Irish companies with an alternative source of funding.

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WASHINGTON – The global economy that was headed for an abyss at the start of 2009 now appears to be in recovery, but remains fragile and scarred by the worst crisis in decades. The year began with major economies on the brink of disaster in what turned into the steepest global slump since the Great Depression, before a modest second-half comeback in most of the world.

US gross domestic product (GDP) sank at a horrific 6.4 annual percent pace in the first quarter, dragged down by a housing market collapse that hammered the financial sector and the rest of the economy. Jobs were being lost at pace of 700,000 per month.

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MINA: Arab News went into the heart of Mina on Saturday to haggle with some pilgrims at a market run mainly by Russian speakers from Turkmenistan before finally managing to locate some British pilgrims (more on that later) and going back to the Jamrat Bridge to talk to a leading Health Ministry official.

Most Hajis, if not all, have changed out of their ihram (the two-piece white cloth pilgrims put on at the start of their journey) as this diary nears completion. It was a glorious day, with the sun shining down on the scores of people in the area.

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RIYADH – Saudi women are now the target of a Kingdom-wide information technology (IT) literacy campaign that could help them find jobs.

The campaign has been launched by International Computer Driving License (ICDL), an internationally-recognized non-profit organization based in Dublin, Ireland.

Dr. Sulaiman Al-Dhalaan, Consultant, ICDL Saudi Arabia said that 120 out of 300 ICDL accredited training centers in Saudi Arabia now offer special training programs for Saudi women.

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Ireland, like other European countries, is warming to Islamic finance and Dublin has emerged as an Islamic investment fund rival to the Channel Islands and Luxembourg. Indeed several Shariah-compliant funds are registered there, including the Oasis Crescent Global Equity Fund which is based in Dublin and so is the planned CIMB Global Islamic Equity Fund which is due to be launched over the next month or so.

Last week the Irish Revenue Service, the tax authorities, outlined in detail the tax treatment of Shariah-compliant products and structures for the funds, leasing and Takaful (Islamic insurance) industries.

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BRUSSELS – Irelands “yes” to an EU reform treaty capped a two-decade, roller-coaster ride to expand the union after the Cold War and widen its powers.

The experience has been so troubled that relief in EU capitals was palpable when Irish voters approved the 2007 Lisbon Treaty Saturday – 16 months after rejecting it in a first vote. But there are still hurdles ahead.

Politicians in Poland and the Czech Republic question the legality of changes enacted to get Ireland on board. After the 2008 Irish “no”, Dublin won guarantees the EU will not gut its traditional neutrality, abortion ban or tax powers.

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