Allowing Saudi women to drive could help the kingdom reap as much income as selling shares in Saudi Aramco.
The move, which went into effect on Sunday, could add as much as US$90 billion to economic output by 2030, with the benefits extending beyond that date, according to Bloomberg Economics.
Selling as much as 5 percent stake in Saudi Arabian Oil Co — at the most optimistic valuation — could generate about US$100 billion.
Photo: AFP
Saudi Arabia was the last nation on Earth to prohibit women from taking the wheel.
“Lifting the ban on driving is likely to increase the number of women seeking jobs, boosting the size of the workforce and lifting overall incomes and output,” according to Ziad Daoud, Dubai-based chief Middle East economist for Bloomberg Economics. “But it’ll take time before these gains are realized as the economy adapts to absorbing growing number of women seeking work.”
Ending the ban is one of the most socially consequential reforms implemented by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It is also a key part of his plan to veer the economy from its reliance on oil.
“The participation of women in Saudi Arabia’s labor market is poor. With only 20 percent of females in Saudi Arabia economically active, the country even lags behind its neighbors in the Gulf, where participation averaged 42 percent in 2016. Recognizing this, the Saudi administration made raising the female participation rate one of its main targets in the National Vision 2030 program, designed to modernize Saudi society,” Daoud said.
Adding 1 percentage point to the Saudi participation rate every year might add about 70,000 more women a year to the labor market, Daoud said.
The larger participation of women will lift potential economic growth by as much as 0.9 percentage points a year, “depending on the proportion that chooses to work full or part-time,” he said.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said ending the ban means “women will be more empowered and more mobile and I think they will participate more in the job market over time, so I think it’s going to contribute to employment of females in Saudi Arabia.”
“A secondary effect will probably be higher gasoline demand,” Al-Falih said in Vienna, where he was attending an OPEC meeting.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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