RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s aid agency KSrelief has completed a medical service offering open-heart surgery and cardiac catheterization for children in Aden, Yemen, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.

The initiative ran from April 19-26. Ten volunteers from various medical backgrounds were on-site.

The team performed 24 open-heart operations and 98 cardiac catheterization procedures.

RIYADH: The Local Content and Government Procurement Authority recognized 26 public, private, nonprofit and individual contributors at its third Local Content Award ceremony on Wednesday in Riyadh.

The theme of the event was “Applauding Your Impact.”

Organized under the patronage of Bandar Al-Khorayef, Saudi Arabia’s minister of industry and mineral resources, the event celebrated efforts to advance local content development — a pillar of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030.

This aims to strengthen the economy by boosting domestic industries, reducing reliance on imports and empowering national talent.

The awards highlight achievements in meeting Local Content Requirements, or LCRs, which have raised government procurement spending on domestic goods and services from 28 percent in 2018 to 47 percent.

During his keynote speech, Al-Khorayef said that 396 Local Content Development Teams operated across government entities, while 270 state-owned firms had embedded LCRs into policies, driving their local spending to 50.7 percent in 2023.

In the government entities category, awards were distributed across two main paths and three subcategories.

In the path for Excellence in Local Content for Medium and Low-Spending Entities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed first place, the Roads General Authority ranked second, and the Digital Government Authority, or DGA, came in third.

Abdulaziz Al-Bader, general manager of procurement at the DGA, told Arab News: “We have focused on localizing industries through technology-related agreements, such as those for digital circuits, where we have achieved impressive results.”

He said that advances in cloud computing and the unification of technical specifications for government technology purchases had further streamlined procurement.

Al-Bader said that “our investment colleagues have made significant efforts, and the entity managing these investments has begun to see tangible outcomes.”

These measures, he explained, directly contributed to “a reduction in government spending on such procurements and accelerated the purchasing process” — an outcome he attributed to rigorous standardization and localized industry partnerships.

STC Group secured the top award for Local Content Preference, while the National Water Company was among other notable honorees.

In the private sector, telecom company TAWAL and manufacturing firm FIPCO stood out among large enterprises. Small and medium enterprises such as Suwar Technology and Intra Defense Technologies were recognized for driving innovation in niche markets.

Reef National Foundation became the first nonprofit to be awarded for advancing local content goals. Individuals Lama Al-Hussein (first) and Abdulmajeed Marzouq (second) earned top honors for raising awareness of local content’s economic impact.