For the Saudi Arabia 2020 publication, our sixth annual edition on the Kingdom's economy, we placed heavy emphasis on technology and innovation as a catalyst for change, as well as the developments in the digital economy. Across numerous industries, technology is playing an increasingly greater role—as a global trend but no less true for Saudi Arabia, which has in recent years committed large-scale investment into digital transformation. The Business Year's country-specific publications, sometimes featuring over 150 face-to-face interviews, are among the most comprehensive annual economic publications available internationally. This 280-page publication covers finance, green economy, energy, water, industry, defense, transport, aviation, digital economy, real estate, construction, food, agriculture, health, education, entertainment, culture, and sports.
This publication is the result of months of on-the-ground research at a time of unprecedented upheaval. Not only was Saudi Arabia already in the midst of an economic revolution aimed at diversifying away from oil and gas, but COVID-19 also upended the very way business is conducted, putting to the test many of the digitalization initiatives carried out in recent years. The pandemic thus served as a validation of many of Saudi Arabia's internal reforms. It also created massive opportunities for some of the nation's up-and-coming businesses. In this 246-page publication, we show how technology completely changed the Kingdom during the pandemic. Things will never be the same. It covers finance, payments and fintech, IT and digitalization, industry, water and energy, aviation and defense, transport and logistics, construction and real estate, agriculture, health, education, and tourism.
This edited volume contributes a novel understanding of the past, present and future of higher education across the six countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Against the backdrop of intense political, ideological and epistemological disruptions across the Arabian Gulf Region over the last two decades, this volume adopts critical comparative perspectives in order to chart the history, present-day and future realities of higher education in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. By focusing on dynamics relating to neoliberalism, and using the notions of ‘tensionality’ and ‘locality’ to situate topics such as curricula, policies, practices, the volume engages with current discourses, controversies and themes such as the internationalization and marketization of higher education in these countries. In doing so, the book offers a theoretical framework to enable greater understanding of the contemporary functioning of higher education in the Arabian Gulf Region. This text will benefit scholars, academics and students in the fields of higher education and international and comparative education more broadly. Those involved with educational policy and politics, and Middle Eastern studies in general, will also benefit from this volume.
This volume offers insights into the role of private supplementary tutoring in the Middle East, and its far-reaching implications for social structures and mainstream education. Around the world, increasing numbers of children receive private tutoring to supplement their schooling. In much of the academic literature this is called shadow education because the content of tutoring commonly mimics that of schooling: as the curriculum changes in the schools, so it changes in the shadow. While much research and policy attention has focused on private tutoring in East Asia and some other world regions, less attention has been given to the topic in the Middle East. Drawing on both Arabic-language and English-language literature, this study commences with the global picture before comparing patterns within and among 12 Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East. It presents the educational and cultural commonalities amongst these countries, examines the drivers of demand and supply of shadow education, and considers the dynamics of tutoring and how it impacts on education in schools. In addition to its pertinence within the Middle East itself, the book will be of considerable interest to academics and education policy makers broadly concerned with changing roles of the state and private sectors in education. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
This book is about Saudi Arabia's efforts to overhaul its economy and the numerous prospects and challenges it faces in doing so. As one of the world's leading oil producers, the outcomes of the most ambitious wave of reforms Saudi Arabia has ever undertaken will provide valuable lessons not only for the kingdom itself but also for other oil-dependent and resource-based economies. Since 2016, Saudi Arabia has embarked on an unparalleled economic - if not social and political - transformation project with an ultimate aim of diversifying away from oil. New sources of growth such as tourism, industry, and entertainment have been identified, but it remains to be seen whether these will be enough to sustain the economy in the post-oil era. Reforms, including lowering energy subsidies, instituting VAT, and introducing indirect taxes on labor and businesses, have already produced notable results. Looking ahead, the economy requires rigorous and continuous processes of severe competition amongst its private sector participants as well as strong institutions. It also requires creative destruction to be allowed to run its course within the wider economy. The economic reform experiment undertaken by Saudi Arabia remains the most sweeping among emerging market economies - and certainly in the entire Middle East. The changes are all encompassing and involve a complex redrawing of the political, economic, religious, and social map.
Hundreds of novels, films, and TV shows have speculated about what it would be like for us Earthlings to build cities on Mars. To make it a reality, however, these dreamers are in sore need of additional conceptual tools in their belt—particularly, a rich knowledge of city planning and design. Enter award-winning author and Tufts University professor, Justin Hollander. In this book, he draws on his experience as an urban planner and researcher of human settlements to provide a thoughtful exploration of what a city on Mars might actually look like. Exploring the residential, commercial, industrial, and infrastructure elements of such an outpost, the book is able to paint a vivid picture of how a Martian community would function – the layout of its public spaces, the arrangement of its buildings, its transportation network, and many more crucial aspects of daily life on another planet. Dr. Hollander then brings all these lessons to life through his own rendered plan for “Aleph,” one of many possible designs for the first city on Mars. Featuring a plethora of detailed, cutting-edge illustrations and blueprints for Martian settlements, this book at once inspires and grounds the adventurous spirit. It is a novel addition to the current planning underway to colonize the Red Planet, providing a rich review of how we have historically overcome challenging environments and what the broader lessons of urban planning can offer to the extraordinary challenge of building a permanent settlement on Mars.
This book examines the processes, practices and principles of defence planning in small and middle powers. Small and middle powers are recalibrating their force postures in this age of disruption. They are adapting their defence planning and military innovation processes to protect the security of their nations. The purpose of this book is to explore defence planning and military innovation in 11 contemporary case studies of small and middle powers in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania. Employing a structured focused comparison framework, it traces patterns in the choices of small and middle powers across the following themes: (1) alliances, dependencies and national ambitions; (2) approaches, processes, methods and techniques; and (3) military innovation strategies and outcomes. Breaking new theoretical ground, it offers a three-pronged typology distinguishing between the strategic defence planner, the transactional defence planners and the complacent defence planner. The book offers a rich array of insights into cases that fall across different geographies, strategic cultures and governance systems. These insights can help guide discussions on how to structure decision-making structures, arrive at ambition levels, formulate priorities, select partners and design defence planning and military innovation processes. This book will be of much interest to students of defence studies, security studies, public policy and international relations, as well as to professionals in defence planning.
This book focuses on the application of geospatial technologies for resource planning and management for the key natural resources, e.g. water, agriculture and forest as well as the decision support system (DSS) for infrastructure development. We have seen in the past four decades that the growing complexities of sustainable management of natural resources management have been very challenging. The book has been written to leverage the current geospatial technologies that integrate the remotely sensed data available from various platforms, the precise locational data providing geospatial intelligence, and the advanced integration tools of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Geospatial technologies have been used for water resources management employing geomorphological characteristics, analysis of river migration pattern, understanding the large-scale hydrological process, wet land classification and monitoring, analysis of glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), assessment of environmental flow and soil erosion studies, water quality modelling and assessment and rejuvenation of paleochannels through groundwater recharge. Geospatial technologies have been applied for crop classification and mapping, soil moisture determination using RISAT-1 C-band and PALSAR-2 L-band sensors, inventory of horticulture plantations, management of citrus orchards, crop yield forecasting, rice yield estimation, estimation of evapotranspiration and its evaluation against lysimeter and satellite-based evapotranspiration product for India to address the various issues of the agricultural system management. Geospatial technologies have been used for generation of digital elevation model, urban dynamics assessment, mobile GIS application at grass root level planning, cadastral level developmental planning and e-governance applications, system dynamics for sustainable development, micro-level water resources planning, site suitability for sewage treatment plant, traffic density assessment, geographical indications of India, archaeological applications and disasters interventions to elaborate various issues of DSS for infrastructure development and management. Geospatial technologies have been employed for the generation and reconciliation of the notified forest land boundaries, and also the land cover changes analysis within notified forest areas, forest resource assessment, management and monitoring and wildlife conservation and management. This book aims to present high-quality technical case studies representing the recent developments in the “application of geospatial technologies for resource planning and management”. The editors hope that this book will serve as a valuable resource for scientists and researchers to plan and manage land and water resources sustainably.
English-Medium Instruction (EMI) is a rapidly growing global phenomenon in countries where English is a second or foreign language. This book focuses on empirical research studies conducted on this growing trend in the Middle East and North Africa, an under-researched area with regards to the effects and challenges of the implementation of EMI in higher education. The contributors are researchers with first-hand experience in countries in the region, including Iran, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Turkey. Each chapter follows a consistent structure, allowing comparisons to be drawn between policies and practices in different countries. Topics covered include investigating perceptions and attitudes of both students and lecturers, opportunities and challenges afforded by EMI, as well as the evolution of EMI practices. By exploring these issues, through the lens of a decolonial critical approach, this volume informs theory underlying research into the phenomenon of EMI in the region.
