The 966

3:13 - The census in Saudi Arabia is starting to reveal interesting data points on Saudi Arabia’s population. Saudi Arabia’s population reached 34 million people in 2021, according to a recent report by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health and published in the Saudi Gazette, at an annual growth rate of 9.3%. Saudi Arabia’s population has grown 16.8% during the past ten years in which data are availab...

2:38 - Richard's one big thing is Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Commerce has announced ten initiatives to develop the e-commerce retail industry, and the initiatives are based on the results of a survey “Consumer’s Voice”, conducted by the Ministry of Commerce to gauge the level of consumer satisfaction with the performance of online stores.  14:39 - Lucien's one big thing is actually two big things....

Episode 60! The 966 wishes everyone a fun and safe Saudi National Day. This week, the hosts re-connect after a two week hiatus for the 60th episode of the show. First, the hosts discuss Richard's one big thing, which is a deep dive on Saudi-Greece relations of late and why that bilateral relation is one to watch. Then the hosts discuss Lucien's one big thing: the uptick in news and activity in the...

2:38 - Saudi Arabia has been ranked 3rd top destination for migrants for the second year in a row, According to the UN World Migration Report 2022. Richard’s one big thing is the World Migration Report 2022, the eleventh in the world migration report series, which has been produced to “contribute to an increased understanding of migration throughout the world.” The report can be accessed here: htt...

1:35 -- The IMF this week maintained its economic growth forecast for Saudi Arabia at 7.6% this year, likely placing it among the top growing economies in the world in 2022. Richard's one big thing this week is the release of the report, in which The IMF said it expected the kingdom’s non-oil gross domestic product to grow by 4.2% this year. Also, Saudi Arabia's fiscal surplus is likely to be 5.5%...

2:36 - Saudi Ministry of Investment Releases Q2 Investment Highlights Report; 49 Deals Worth More Than $925m Inked. Richard's one big thing is the release 13th edition of ”Investment Highlights.” The report examines investment developments and focuses the tourism sector.  MISA says it oversaw 49 major deals valued at $925 million, which are set to create around 2000 new jobs in the local economy....

3:31 - Richard's one big thing is a new agreement between IBM and Saudi Arabia’s IT authority that will upskill 100,000 young Saudis in the digital sector. The MoU to implement eight initiatives seeks to “bolster the Kingdom’s position as a hub of technology and innovation in the Middle East and North Africa region,” according to SPA. 9:32 - Lucien's one big thing is a look at the latest data comi...

1:40 - Richard's one big thing is the Kingdom's newly announced national aspirations and priorities for the research, development and innovation sector to enhance the kingdom’s competitiveness and add 60 billion riyals ($16bn) to its gross domestic product by 2040. Dr. Munir El Desouki, president of King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh, sat down with The National to ex...

2:00 - First up, The 966 speaks with Hussein Ibish , columnist for Bloomberg and The National and Senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Hussein discusses his view, shared with the Washington Post, that “[a]nyone expecting a checklist of achievements was looking at the wrong visit. Biden didn’t go with a list but a long-term agenda." 33:49 - Next, The 966 welcomes...

Dr. Sean Foley, professor at MTSU and author of the book Changing Saudi Arabia: Art, Culture, and Society in the Kingdom, joins The 966.  Dr. Foley specializes in Middle East history and the cultural, political, and religious trends in the wider Islamic World. Before that discussion, the hosts do a small preview of President Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia this weekend, and discuss The 966's plans f...

The 966 asks John about the state of the Saudi economy, economic reforms ongoing in the Kingdom, the PIF, and much more.

1:50 - The Saudi Ministry of Hajj announced all potential pilgrims from the West must apply through ‘Motawif’ platform. Richard’s One Big Thing is this new disruptive portal became the only place to buy accredited Hajj packages across 57 western countries. 8:15 - OPEC+ has delayed a big decision on oil production quotas, but just how much spare capacity does the group and Saudi Arabia in particula...

3:17 - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman landed in Turkey for the first time in several years on Wednesday for talks with President Erdogan, after visiting neighboring Egypt and Jordan as part of a regional tour. The visit to Turkey, a member of NATO, is aimed at fully normalizing ties that were ruptured after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Richard's one big thing this week i...

1:46 - Richard's one big thing this week is a new report from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Investment that highlights all the reasons to invest in Saudi Arabia now. In the 12th edition of ''Investment Highlights'', the Invest Saudi team discusses a record-breaking Q1 2022. The deals overseen by MISA are expected to drive investments worth more than $4 billion and create 5,816 new jobs in the local e...

1:43 - Richard's one big thing this week is a new report highlighting how Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 is shifting Saudi Arabia’s global perception. Vision 2030 has become the largest single contributor to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s global media coverage, a recent report indicated. The research, titled “KSA Reputation: How Vision 2030 is Rebranding the Nation,” released last month by global media...

1:28 - Will Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel soon?  Richard’s one big thing this week is what people are talking about in Saudi foreign policy this week: “normalization.” Are Saudi Arabia and Israel in fact close to normalizing relations?  The hosts discuss the gap that currently exists between Israel and Saudi Arabia and why there’s a lot in the way between the two countries preventin...

2:32 - Saudi Arabia's big week at Davos Richard's one big thing this week is Saudi Arabia's presence at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week and how Saudi Arabia is stepping into the limelight with a strong economic start to 2022. Saudi Arabia has one of the few good stories to tell at the WEF in a world struggling to deal with the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine a...

1:16 - Richard's one big thing this week - What’s next for the UAE as Mohamed bin Zayed takes the reins? The UAE’s de facto leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan was elected president of the Gulf Arab state by a federal supreme council, following the death of Sheikh Khalifa. MbZ, as he is known, is 61. He had already been in power for years in a period when Sheikh Khalifa suffered bouts of il...

2:20 - Richard's one big thing is a discussion on carbon capture including a recent huge investment by Aramco into the space. 12:35 - There’s a lot going on in Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector... This week, there were two events in the region: A major aviation summit in Riyadh, called the Future Aviation Forum, and a tourism and travel event in Dubai, the Arabian Travel Market. Both created significa...

1:00 - Building a Hydrogen Sector: Can the US help Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia seeks to become a global supplier of hydrogen and create a home-grown industry. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia should (and already are) working together to help Saudi Arabia realize this goal and to help power the energy transition. 9:50 - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Scholarship Program has a new name and a new, refreshed ma...

Dr. Mohammed Alhajji is director of the Behavioral Insights & Nudge Unit at the Ministry of Health Saudi Arabia since November 2020 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he develops and implements. He also is co-founder of SaudiGenome, an innovative social entrepreneurship startup in Saudi Arabia to provide genetic testing at low costs with the goal of reducing prevalence of hereditary diseases in th...

0:38 - Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's first visit to Saudi Arabia in years represents a thaw in Saudi-Turkey relations that hit a low point four years ago. Erdogan hopes the visit will herald a new era of relations after intense efforts to repair strained ties following the aftermath of the Jamal Khashoggi murder in Istanbul in 2018. Before the visit, in a policy reversal, Turkey halted...

1:43 - Prince Turki al-Faisal's recent op-ed in Arab News is a must-read. The hosts discuss this piece, ' America should laugh with the Kingdom, not scowl’ , and why it brilliantly captures outdated American attitudes about Saudi Arabia as a growing nation with strong, deep ties to the United States. "While many challenges face us in the post-corona era, I am amused by the brouhaha in the US media...

1:17 - Saudi Arabia made interesting headway in four different foreign policy areas this week. Significant developments in Saudi Arabia’s relationships with and interests in Iran, Lebanon, Turkey and Yemen. The 966 kicks off by talking about each of these for Richard's one big thing this week.  9:19 - The U.S. Navy's new multinational task force will deploy to the waters around Yemen and in the Re...

0:38 - Richard's One Big Thing This Week is NEOM's roadshow event in New York City on Tuesday, which he attended - and said was a success. Executives attending on behalf of the futuristic mega-city and development on the Kingdom's Red Sea coast were enthusiastic about NEOM and what's to come... 12:27 - Lucien's One Big Thing This Week is a Saudi UAV company that is hoping to become an exporter of...