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“IN the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, prayer and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family and companions.
Dear brothers, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.
With Allah’s help and blessings, we open the work of the second year of the fifth term of the Majlis Al-Shoura, asking Allah Almighty to help us all to serve our religion, our country and our people, the people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
We cannot achieve our hopes and aspirations without a dependence on Allah and the help of the people of this country. If this is in place, our dreams will come true. I say this because I have to point out that our current achievements have not met all our aspirations which we have sought to ensure our country is ranked among the developed countries of the world. A State that is based on the word of Tawheed (oneness of God) and whose flag was raised by the late King Abdul Aziz, is able (God willing) to achieve what it seeks patiently.
The unity and power of this country imposes a collective responsibility on us to defend it at a time when the ambitions of our enemies, haters and aggressors have increased. This requires us to be vigilant. Therefore, there is a double responsibility that has to be shared by everyone wherever they are. The homeland is for all of us. All of us will be measured according to our efforts, sacrifices and dedication to a country whose foundation is based on the pillars of Islam. This is the criteria that will test the caliber of the people of this country.

The ‘word is like a sword’
You are all aware that the word is like a sword. I urge everyone to realize this. If the word becomes a tool for settling scores, to gossip, and to charge people randomly, then the word will become a tool for destruction. This does not mean a ban on constructive criticism. Therefore, I ask everyone to fear Allah in their words and actions, to shoulder their responsibilities and not to become a burden on their religion, homeland, and parents.
We are part of the Arab, Islamic, and international world. Our role is based on defending their rights and making sacrifices for unity in their ranks. Any fair person cannot deny our role in this regard. We will always be keen to adopt their just cases. This will only be achieved through unity. At the international level, our position is clear and based on friendship and promotion of peace among peoples and nations.

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JEDDAH – The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) is working on plans to develop land around all the country’s airports to create more economic activity and about 34,000 new jobs.
The GACA recently signed a contract with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank to carry out the commercial, technical, legal and financial studies to find ways to exploit the land economically.
The GACA has allocated two sites at Jeddah’s King Abdul Aziz International Airport for private sector investment, including commercial and residential buildings, offices, conference centers and parks. The pieces of land are one million square meters and 1.4 million square meters in size. One of it is east of the Haramain Road – the Jeddah Highway.
The GACA had completed its initial studies on the two sites and approved a number of companies and alliances, including local investors and international companies, to submit offers.
The GACA set the deadline at the end of May 2010. All bids will be assessed by a specialized committee to select the most adequate in terms of long- and short-term financial returns.

Airports Cities
Execution of the Airports Cities project is based on a partnership with the private sector. It will involve a main developer and will contain markets, aviation and travel, tourism, hotels businesses, warehouses, residential complexes and light industrial activities.
The GACA aims to exploit the vast areas around airports through private investment to raise the income of airports through non-aviation-related activities. In 2009 it had invited interested companies to introduce their qualification requests.
The qualification has been completed and the second stage would be the bidding and negotiating prior to selecting the company to be awarded the contracts. – Okaz/SG

JEDDAH: New development projects supported by the private sector at King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah will create at least 34,000 jobs, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said on Monday.

The new projects, which are part of GACA’s strategy to transform domestic and international airports into airport cities, will include five-star hotels, shopping malls, recreation centers, tourist facilities, exhibition centers and aviation-related factories.

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JEDDAH: Fernvale Investments (Mauritius) Pte Ltd. is making a capital commitment of $75 million to Pan-African Investment Partners II Ltd. (the second Kingdom Zephyr fund, known as PAIP II). This was announced here on Monday by Kingdom Holding Company (KHC).

Fernvale is a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd.

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LONDON – The first environmental, social and governance (ESG) index of Middle Eastern and North African companies is due to be launched later this year – two years after it was first announced.

The Dubai-based Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance, index and ratings provider Standard & Poors (S&P), and Credit Rating and Information Services of India Ltd. (Crisil) are developing the index, which will be based on constituents ESG performance, Environmental Finance Publications reported Friday.

“The index will help some 400 listed companies in 11 countries better understand environmentally and socially responsible investment practices, and the importance of implementing sound corporate governance,” International Finance Corporation (IFC) said, the private sector arm of the World Bank, which is supporting the indexs development.

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In the space of a mere five months since its first listing in August 2009, Bursa Malaysia, the national stock exchange, based in Kuala Lumpur, has emerged as the top listings exchange in the world for sukuk (Islamic bonds). By the end of December 2009, the value of sukuk program listings totaled $17.6 billion, comprising a total of 12 sukuk issuances.

Bursa Malaysia, formerly the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, hitherto known for its Shariah-compliant equities universe, is attracting listings by both the big-hitting Malaysian issuers such as Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund and the investment arm of the Ministry of Finance Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), the national oil company and Cagamas MBS Bhd (Cagamas MBS), the national mortgage corporation and major international issuers such GE Capital, the finance subsidiary of General Electric (GE) of the US.

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In the last three months, the sukuk market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has shown a remarkable turnaround from the difficult days of early 2009. The GCC market has effectively been playing catch up to developments in the sukuk market in Asia during 2009, where Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan have led the sector into recovery with a string of issuances starting in February 2009, largely government local currency sukuk and a number of sovereign international sukuk.

In the GCC at the time, only sovereign Bahrain and the quasi-sovereign Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) went to the financial market with global sukuk issuances to raise funds.

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A number of Mediterranean Basin countries are promoting themselves as Islamic finance hubs in an effort to attract sukuk, trust and investment funds business. In Gibraltar, for instance, the first Shariah-compliant fund the CL Global Property Fund was launched in November 2009 with the aim of providing shareholders capital appreciation by investing in a diversified portfolio of real estate assets and projects, primarily student accommodation located in the major university cities of the United Kingdom.

Similarly, last year, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) launched a consultation document on Islamic Finance in Malta Application to Banking and Securities. At an Islamic finance conference held in October this year in St. Julians, the government confirmed that Malta may become the first European Union country to introduce an Islamic finance legislative framework an agenda being pushed by several professional bodies including the Malta Institute of Management, the Malta Employers Association and the Malta Union of Bank Employees. State aspirations for developing the Mediterranean island into an Islamic finance hub has been articulated no less by President George Abela during an official visit to Qatar in September 2009.

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A white paper on Islamic Financing for Infrastructure Projects, released by The Dubai International Financial Centre Authority last week, highlighted the tremendous potential for Shariah-compliant financing of infrastructure projects in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and globally.

The paper notes that increasing the Shariah-compliant share of such projects would help meet an infrastructure funding demand that will range from $535 billion over the next decade to as much as $2 trillion by 2020.

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Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Egypt and even Libya have all shied away from raising funds from the Islamic capital market through a debut sukuk issuance citing current market conditions or surplus liquidity as reasons. Yet the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector funding arm of the World Bank Group, has seen fit in going to the market to raise $100 million through a US dollar denominated sukuk issuance.

This, together with Dubai’s current $2 billion sukuk issuance program, and Bahrain’s $750 million sovereign sukuk issuance and Saudi Electricity Company’s offering earlier this year, are further indications of a steadily recovering global sukuk market, which is currently led by issuers out of Malaysia and Asia.

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