Made in KSA — the female entrepreneurs helping to grow Saudi Arabia’s economy

Several women leaders have joined Playbook platform as members to access their masterclass library, engage with a curated network, attend events, access mentorship and much more. (Supplied)
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Updated 17 September 2022
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Made in KSA — the female entrepreneurs helping to grow Saudi Arabia’s economy

  • Women are using technology and innovation to make job creation and training their business

JEDDAH: The aim of Vision 2030 is to create one million jobs for women in Saudi Arabia. Here are some of the women and businesses playing a leading role in creating career opportunities in the Kingdom.

Namat, a nonprofit social business by Nesma Holding Co., is aiming to integrate women living outside urban centers into the national economy, enabling them to actively contribute to the economic and social prosperity of the Kingdom by redefining the potential of ‘“Made in KSA.”

Merging lean management, continuous improvement and zero waste principles with a female-centered agenda, Namat is paving the way for socially viable, ethical and customizable garment manufacturing that benefits businesses as well as the wider community.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Namat, a nonprofit social business by Nesma Holding Co., is aiming to enrich Saudi Arabia’s garment manufacturing industry through the deployment and empowerment of women in rural areas, bringing them into the folds of the national economy.

• Playbook, a fully female- founded startup, is focused on supporting working women in the region in meeting their career aspirations.

• Debyazah, a homegrown hospitality concept, is also seeking to promote culinary science and the art of modern food display.

Noura Alturki, vice president of the Nesma Holding Co., said: “My family business, Nesma, established this project for the purpose of bringing jobs to women in the tailoring and embroidery industry. Through our social enterprise, Namat, we aim to enrich Saudi Arabia’s garment manufacturing industry through the deployment and empowerment of women in rural areas, bringing them into the folds of the national economy. This project is inspiring in its inclusiveness.”

“Our vision is to replicate tailoring centers across all of the Kingdom so that women in all 13 provinces in Saudi Arabia have access to employment. I believe an empowered woman is true to herself, silences the voices (internal and external) that doubt her in order to pave her own happiness in the world,” she said.




Noura Alturki

Namat has grown into a world-class garment manufacturing and training program employing more than 150 skilled women across four tailoring centers in the Kingdom.

Playbook, a fully female-founded startup, is focused on supporting working women in the region in meeting their career aspirations.

Several women leaders from Saudi Arabia have joined the platform as members to access their masterclass library, engage with a curated network, problem-solve, attend events, access mentorship and much more.

Members are also drawn to the impact arm of the business where each paid membership (annual fee) is matched to a free-access scholarship for women and students in underserved communities. The platform is soon to distribute thousands of scholarship access memberships through NGOs and universities in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region.

Based in Riyadh, Amal Dokhan, general partner at 500 Global MENA and one of a handful of female venture capitalists in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, delivered a masterclass on the platform titled, “The Investor Mindset.”

The masterclass consisted of 11 episodes with runtimes of more than two hours. Dokhan breaks down her classes into sections that include investment terminologies, investment strategies for angels and venture capitalists, capitalization tables, dilution of shares and growth metrics.

Drawing on her personal experience as an educator, founder, angel investor and partner at a VC firm, Dokhan guides female founders toward understanding how to connect with investors and what they are looking for in a scalable startup.

Our vision is to replicate tailoring centers across all of the Kingdom so that women in all 13 provinces in Saudi Arabia have access to employment.

Noura Alturki, Vice president of the Nesma Holding Co.

Fatima Batook, brand owner, TIMA Sport Apparel and CEO of Switz Group, said that “The Investor Mindset” was her favorite masterclass. “The class opens the doorway for all struggling entrepreneurs trying to exponentially grow their businesses. It’s truly an insightful masterclass that adds a lot of value to many,” she said.

Nourah Feteih, an author, public speaker, environmental advocate and a new member of the Playbook, said: “As an environmental advocate, I always believe in spreading greatness to the world on so many levels. Playbook is doing an amazing job of supporting education for women globally to get access to the most informative and knowledgeable classes while learning from the entrepreneurs and experienced leading business women worldwide.”

“There are many scholarships that will be sent out under the member’s name. Wishing to be a philanthropist, I am glad to have received this opportunity. And, under the Saudi Vision 2030, I believe that passion, productivity and perseverance are keys to unlimited success in anything we do.”

Shreya Rammohan, Playbook co-founder and CMO, said: “Corporates such as Watar partners, Zain Group, Investcorp and other notable organizations have started onboarding their female executives to the platform. This aligns with their gender diversity and inclusion values, and their commitment to investing in relatable learning and development resources that can support their teams to network and build their personal brand. As members of the community, they can get on the app to network, seek out mentors, access learning resources, browse our masterclass library and much more.”

Rammohan said that Playbook rethinks and redefines accelerated career growth for women through curated learning resources and an engaged community.

The platform is launched on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

For the first time, female founders in the region are finding a bridge between tactical content on how to fundraise and access capital by learning from the masterclasses, connecting with the masters 1:1 and networking with other entrepreneurs within the community.

Lessons at Playbook grow in volume each month as the platform’s developers and founding team strategically include multiple masterclasses on decision-making, leadership, empathy, mental health, team-building, scaling, trusting your intuition, knowing your rights, maintaining a legacy in a family business, and running growth experiments.

Each of these masterclasses is led by women leaders across more than 17 industries that build their legacy and reverse-engineer their Playbook to success in the format of a masterclass. These are in Arabic and English and subtitled accordingly. It is further complemented by networking features, live event access, 1:1 mentorship and coaching opportunities, job boards and other benefits.

Nouf Masoud, CEO of Debyazah, a homegrown hospitality concept, is also seeking to promote the science of the culinary and the art of modern food display, and be Saudi Arabia’s first inclusive hospitality ambassador.

“We aim to showcase the Kingdom’s hospitality standards to the world and support the country’s vision through investing in opportunities that will nourish the local market and elevate the hospitality industry,” she said.

“We created a series of residential hospitality workshops for females in Riyadh and Jeddah to create a hospitality operation system in their own residence, making their home look and feel like a boutique hotel in addition to developing a career in the hospitality industry. At Debyazah, we aim to provide hospitality programs and short courses dedicated to individuals working in the hospitality field to develop the ultimate customer and guest experience.”

Masoud believes to achieve success as a woman entrepreneur, it is vital to surmount all odds and gain support from other companies to help the business grow.

“To create impactful momentum on a national scale, it is important to collaborate with multiple companies and organizations as they are seeking women to achieve leadership roles and are supporting them to achieve its objectives.”

 

 


Photography competition winners celebrate Saudi landscapes and stories

Updated 7 sec ago
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Photography competition winners celebrate Saudi landscapes and stories

  • More than 1,300 people submitted their work to the Kingdom Photography Awards
  • Total of SR400,000 given to winners of the competition

JEDDAH: Two new photography exhibitions in Jeddah are celebrating the work of the winners of a competition that awarded a total of SR400,000 in prize money to participants.

“Hayy Aynak — In a New Light” and “When the Fog Whispers” were opened by the Visual Arts Commission at Hayy Jameel on Wednesday.

The exhibitions will run until May 25 in conjunction with the third Kingdom Photography Award, which began earlier this year.

The award has become a prominent platform for capturing the spirit of Saudi Arabia through the lens of its creative talents.

This exhibition celebrates the Kingdom’s natural beauty, cultural richness and artistic innovation through photography.

The competition invites artists to explore a specific region of the Kingdom through their work.

Dina Amin, CEO of the Visual Arts Commission, told Arab News: “The idea is to start to create through the lens of different photographers and their creative process, a body of work that captures the richness of the landscapes of Saudi Arabia through different languages of expression, different creative processes, different types of photography and storytelling to really create a visual odyssey almost through the landscape, the people and the environment of Saudi Arabia today.”

She added: “If you look in today’s exhibition, you’ll see some of the photographers have chosen to look at natural environment, landscape. Others have chosen to look at population and populated environments, so to speak, whereas others are really looking at tradition and history. So, with each engagement, we start to have this beautiful journey.”

The “Hayy Aynak” exhibition presents the winning works from the third running of the award, which received more than 1,300 submissions and awarded a total of SR400,000 in prizes.

The exhibition celebrates the aesthetics and diverse landscapes of the Kingdom — from the buzz of urban life to the stillness of the desert.

An international jury evaluated the submissions and selected the most compelling and meaningful stories based on creativity, technical proficiency and the narrative power of visual storytelling.

The second exhibition, “When the Fog Whispers,” takes visitors on a personal and emotional journey to the Asir region, long a source of artistic inspiration thanks to its mist-covered mountains and deep-rooted cultural heritage.

Five artists were selected to create special photography projects that reflected their relationships with the Asir landscape. The resulting works are visually captivating and rich in reflection, documentation and human connection.

Mohammed Sumji, the curator of the third outing of the award, told Arab News about the experience of bringing photographers together to explore the distinctive landscape of Asir.

“We selected the region of Asir, and the five photographers that we selected were known to me, and I basically selected them based on their potential to make works especially around Asir because they practice dealing with either stories of people’s lived experiences or landscapes. I’m very happy with how it’s come out.”

Saudi photographer, Abdulmajeed Al-Ruwaidan, chose the theme “Roadside Stations” for his submission, documenting the architecture of old Saudi gas stations before they disappeared under modern development.

Elham Al-Dossary, also from Saudi Arabia, chose the theme “Crossing Asir,” blending her late father’s archive as a photographer with contemporary images to create a visual narrative that meditates on memory and transformation.

For the past two years, Ilham has been helping her father archive his work, and a small part of that archive is dedicated to his time in Asir.

“He has an archive at home that dates back to the 1960s and ’70s,” she told Arab News.

She continued: “The archive became a way to view Asir through a personal and familial lens.

“There’s a connection between me and my father — through the land, through the people — and I also wanted to explore more stories, not just about him, but about life there and the areas we photographed, like Al-Habla and others.”

Mohamed Mahdy, from Egypt, titled his collection “When the Land Loves You.” It is a poignant portrayal of the emotional connection between the people of Asir and their land, captured through nostalgic and heartfelt imagery.

Lina Geoushy, also from Egypt, called her collection “Daughters of Al-Qatt.” Hers is a colorful celebration of the women who sustain the traditional Al-Qatt Al-Asiri artform, recognized by UNESCO. Her photographs honor this living tradition.

She told Arab News: “This photo is especially important to me because it’s in this very rich village, Rijal Almaa … it plays on the idea of the inside and the outside, the internal spaces or imaginaries and the landscape; the lady in the photo is Sharifa Mahdy, who’s been practicing this art for 25 years, and she learnt it from the famous Fatima Abou Gahas.

“Apart from it being a life tradition, Qatt art has healing powers … it gives them confidence and positivity and it’s sort of like a refuge for them.”

Hicham Gardaf, from Morocco, created a collection titled “The Road to the Juniper.” It is a meticulously crafted visual journey through juniper forests, where nature becomes a silent cultural archive filled with untold stories.

He told Arab News: “I imagined this massive juniper tree with roots spreading across Asir — like routes we travel, all leading back to this one tree that connects the land, the people and their stories.”

Throughout the exhibition period, the Visual Arts Commission will also host a series of interactive workshops and panel discussions featuring local and international experts.

These sessions aim to create space for dialogue, skill development and knowledge exchange, enriching visitors’ experience and fostering artistic and professional growth across various fields of the visual arts.


City Walk Jeddah reopens with new attractions until June 14

Updated 12 min 15 sec ago
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City Walk Jeddah reopens with new attractions until June 14

  • Seven sections spanning 281,000 sq. m offer a range of activities
  • Rides, theatrical performances and dining options on offer

JEDDAH: City Walk, part of Jeddah Season, officially reopened on Wednesday with a range of new attractions.

Running until June 14, this year’s event features seven themed zones spanning 281,000 sq. m. — Wonder Wall, Tomorrow Land, Fantasy Land, Cairo Nights, Black Forest, Adventure Land and The Garden.

Each section features games, rides and other family-friendly activities.

Salma Al-Harbi, a visitor from Makkah, told Arab News: “We’ve been visiting City Walk for the past three years, but this year truly stands out.

“There are so many new attractions, the experience is more affordable, and the waiting times are much shorter.

“My kids especially loved Luca Land where they got to play with different dog breeds. And for the whole family, the horror zone was definitely the highlight.”

Another, visitor Yazeed Al-Harbi, said: “There’s a great mix of thrills and relaxation. I didn’t expect to enjoy the painting area as much as I did. It’s really inclusive and well thought-out.”

For those seeking light-hearted fun, Joy Plex offers activities for children with characters such as Shaun the Sheep, Masha and the Bear, and Bluey leading interactive adventures.

The nearby Joy Plex-X expands on this with activities such as the Slime Festival, Stumble Guys, and Jelly Zone.

“City Walk is amazing this year, my kids loved the Slime Fest and meeting their favorite cartoon characters in the air-conditioned space, which was a great relief from the hot weather outside,” said Rana Khalid, who came with her children.

“There’s so much to do for everyone in the family.”

Beyond the rides and characters, the 2025 event includes a number of creative and educational activities.

Splash Studio invites guests to paint on the walls, while Navigation Land has air rifle shooting, archery and remote-controlled vehicles.

The Birds & Reptiles Cave gives nature lovers a chance to interact with and learn about exotic species through guided tours.

City Walk also hosts theatrical shows such as A Thousand and One Nights, Pasha, and Broken World.

Beyond the attractions, the event features 77 retail outlets and 65 restaurants and cafes.

Oat Chayanin, from Thailand, who is showcasing handmade cotton owls and other products, said: “I brought a selection of handmade owls from Thailand, along with some medicinal products.

“It’s been wonderful to see how excited people in Saudi Arabia are to learn about Thai culture and show such respect for the products.

“I’m looking forward to engaging with customers and learning more about Saudi culture so I can better understand what to bring for future events.”

Project manager, Mohammed Fahad, said: “The horror-themed attractions are a major highlight this year.”

“Experiences like Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach plunge visitors into a chilling maze of terrifying challenges, while Music Hell offers ghostly concerts brought to life by a skeleton band.

“Le Grand Hotel takes guests on a suspense-filled journey through a haunted building, testing their nerves at every turn.”


KSrelief completes volunteer medical project for pediatric open-heart surgery in Yemen

Updated 01 May 2025
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KSrelief completes volunteer medical project for pediatric open-heart surgery in Yemen

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.


Japan’s foreign minister, GCC’s secretary-general discuss partnership

Updated 01 May 2025
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Japan’s foreign minister, GCC’s secretary-general discuss partnership

  • Officials meet in Riyadh to discuss energy security

RIYADH: Japan’s Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi has told Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi that Japan “attaches importance to its partnership with the GCC.”

The two officials met in Riyadh on Thursday to discuss the Gulf region’s partnership with Japan in energy security.

Iwaya added that the GCC region was playing an “increasingly important role in achieving peace and stability amid the current turbulent regional and international situation.”

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that Albudaiwi had said that the relationship between Japan and the GCC member states was of “strategic importance,” and that the GCC also hoped to further strengthen its relationship with Japan.

The two officials welcomed the first round of negotiations on the Japan-GCC Economic Partnership Agreement, which resumed in December 2024.

They also agreed to cooperate in a wide range of areas, including politics and security, trade and investment, based on the Japan-GCC Action Plan adopted during the first Japan-GCC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in September 2023.

Iwaya and Albudaiwi exchanged views on Gaza, the Syrian Arab Republic, Iran, the Red Sea, and East Asia.

They both stressed their intention to further strengthen Japan-GCC relations and to maintain close cooperation through the implementation of the action plan.

This article also appears on Arab News Japan


LCGPA honors 26 winners at third Local Content Awards in Riyadh

Updated 01 May 2025
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LCGPA honors 26 winners at third Local Content Awards in Riyadh

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

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.