saudi australia bulletin issue 64

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

SECRETARY GENERAL OF MUSLIM WORLD LEAGUE DR. AL TURKI VISITS SYDNEY

SAUDI ARABIA WINS SEAT ON BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF RED CROSS & CRESCENT

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December 2013 Issue 64 Vol 8 www.saudiaustraliaonline.com

Custodian of the two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz has been chosen by Forbes magazine as one of the top ten most powerful people in the world due to his governance of Islam’s two holiest sites, his Kingdom’s oil wealth and the many reforms he has implemented during his reign.King Abdullah ranked eighth among 72 international fig-ures, including presidents of state, kings and billionaires.In justifying its ranking, Forbes referred to the position occupied by Saudi Arabia under the leadership of King Abdullah on the Arab, Islamic and International levels, as well as the economic significance it has worldwide.According to Forbes, King Abdullah “holds the keys to Is-lam’s two holiest sites and the world’s second largest crude oil deposit of some 265 billion barrels, amounting to about 18% of global reserves. The Kingdom boasts a $727 billion GDP, putting it in the top 20 richest countries worldwide.”The magazine’s annual ranking also highlighted the wide-ranging reforms the Saudi monarch has undertaken in his country.The King has also celebrated his 8th anniversary this year of his accession to the throne. In the course of these 8 years, the King has done much towards modernising and developing the Kingdom’s economy.

The King has also implemented various reforms this year, with the most prominent among them being the intro-duction of 30 women to take part in the Shura Council for the first time in the country’s history.The most distinguishing feature of the past eight years, has been the huge number of gigantic economic, social and educational projects the King has initiated.


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The Holy city of Makkah’s provincial governor, Prince Khaled al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz, said the 2013 Hajj marked a “qualitative turning point”

in the organisation of the annual pilgrimage. About 1.4 million Muslim pilgrims from 188 countries completed a successful and incident-free Hajj this year.The rites were carried out in a calm atmosphere making it a “success” and proving that “Islam is a religion of peace, civilisation and progress,” he told reporters.Although the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, pil-grims are allowed to leave a day early after taking part in the stoning of the devil ritual.Pilgrims woke up early and began stoning three huge concrete structures in Mina representing Satan straight after sunrise, in accordance with the teachings of Islam.The ritual is an emulation of the Prophet Hazrat Abra-ham (A.S) stoning of the devil at the three spots where it is said Satan tried to dissuade the biblical patriarch from obeying Allah’s order to sacrifice his son, hazrat Ishmael (A.S).Saudi Arabia declared this year’s Hajj a great success af-ter it finished free of accident or disease.There had been particular concern about the possible spread of the MERS virus, which has killed 60 people worldwide, 51 of them in the kingdom itself. “Not a single case (of MERS) was detected,” Health Minister Abdallah al-Rabia told reporters.The overall number of pilgrims at this year’s Hajj was just

under two million, sharply down on last year’s 3.2 mil-lion.Foreign pilgrims accounted for 1.38 million of them, compared with 1.75 million in 2012.Officials said the smaller number contributed to the suc-cess.The pilgrimage was monitored by more than 5,000 cam-eras installed at all holy sites, including 1,200 at the Grand Mosque, managed by the Command and Control Centre for Hajj Security. Saudi Minister of Hajj Affairs Bandar Hajjar said that his ministry has been instructed by the king to work out a 25-year plan to ensure the smooth running of the pil-grimage.


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More than 26 Arabic, Islamic and foreign satellite chan-nels, press agencies, radio stations, newspapers, 75 foreign independent media teams and more than 300 Arab and foreign media staff covered the pilgrimage event this year and followed its news around the clock.Media agencies and channels, hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Information, competed in media coverage of the departure of pilgrims from Mecca to Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah. Coverage of the holy activities throughout the pilgrimage season presents a striking opportunity to each media channel to distinguish itself .The corridors of media centres, organised and established by the Ministry of Culture and Information, represented by the ministry of foreign media in Jeddah, Mecca , Medi-na and Arafat and Mina , was always occupied by journal-ists covering the movements of the pilgrims.Dr. Abdulaziz bin Saleh bin Salma, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Information for Media outside Saudi Arabia, explained the extensive role played by the Ministry, which included working on the issuance of permits and visas for journalists and the completion of their reservations. He also noted that nearly 300 Arab and foreign journalists this year participated in representing the Arab media and foreign news agencies. In addition to this many well-known international agencies, companies and media organizations expressed their interest in mak-

ing documentaries and educational programs on the pil-grimage this year.Dr. Abdulaziz pointed out that the ministry prepared a camp for the media teams in the holy places of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah which were equipped with the appropri-ate means of communication and broadcasting services to facilitate their work. The ministry also prepared programs, activities and visits to holy sites , institutions and important locations including a visit to the Jeddah Islamic Port and various pilgrimage related institutions.Dr. Abdulaziz also noted that this years pilgrimage (1434 Hijri) was distinguished by preparations and arrangements which were planned and organised by the Government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz . Dr. Abdulaziz also added that this years distinctive feature was found in the state service for Hajj pilgrims, with nearly a quarter of a million workers from the traffic police, health, rural affairs and many other department bodies contribut-ing to the facilitation of the Hajj. Many of these workers had also brought along their experience from previous years to make this year even more comfortable. The Saudi Ara-bian Government had also launched awareness campaigns across the world to ensure a slight reduction in the number of pilgrims this year due to the current expansion works and construction taking place around the Grand Mosque .



The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, rep-resented by the Saudi Red Crescent Authority, has won a seat on the board of directors of the International Fed-

eration of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) for Asia and the Pacific for a four-year term. This came during the elections in the city of Sydney, Australia .A majority of 185 delegates from 189 countries elected the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a seat in IFRC for the term from 2014 -2018.The Saudi Ambassador to Australia Nabil bin Muhammad Al Saleh ccongratulated Saudi red Crescent Authority for winning the seat, Ambas-sador Al Saleh states that the winning of the seat is a reflection of the status of Saudi Arabia in the global humanitarian spectrum in providing help and support to countries across the world.The 19th session of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was held in Sydney between the 2nd and 6th of No-vember under the title “150 years of humanitarian work”, which included the participation of rough-ly 1,300 delegations representing more than 188 states, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.The Kingdom’s delegation to the event was headed by Prince Abdullah bin Faisal bin Farhan, Direc-tor General of International Affairs Department at the Saudi Red Crescent Authority (SRCS).The session was attended by Saudi Ambassador to Australia Nabil bin Muhammad Al Saleh and a number of Saudi officials.In a statement, Prince Abdullah bin Faisal praised the humanitarian role played by the Saudi Red Crescent Authority for its diverse reach to some

of the most affected areas in the world, under the guidance of Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, President of SRCS.


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for a visit to Australia during which he opened a set of seminars and Islamic activities.The MWL’s secretary general also met with a number of officials, scholars, Islamic preachers and heads of the Is-lamic centres and societies in Australia for talks focusing on how best to revive and enhance joint Islamic action.While on his visit the MWL hosted two symposiums in Sydney, with the first titled ’ Muslims In Australia, The Present and the Future’ in cooperation with the Austral-ian Union of Islamic Councils. The Secretary General of Muslim World League (MWL) Dr. Abdullah bin Abdul-mohsen Al-Turki opened this symposium at the Parlia-ment house in Sydney.Addressing the symposium, Dr. Al-Turki expressed his thanks to and appreciation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the Crown Prince, for their efforts exerted in service of Muslims around the world.

In his speech, Saudi Ambassador to Australia Nabil bin Mo-hammed Al Saleh expressed his thanks to and appreciation of the Muslim World League for its pivotal role in the affairs of Muslims around the world.



Australia is looking to increase its exports to Saudi Ara-bia. It is with this aim and also to further boost the bilat-eral trade that an Australian food and agriculture trade mission participated in the international agriculture and agro-industry trade show, which ended in Riyadh .The trade mission, which came from the Australian State of Victoria also held a networking session with Saudi businessmen at the Australian embassy in Diplomatic Quarter focusing on potential tie-ups in the agriculture and food processing industry.Australian Ambassador Neil Hawkins opened the net-working session to facilitate the interaction between the businessmen of two countries.Saudi Arabia is one of the largest regional market for Victoria’s commodity exports and largest market for food and beverage, including meat processing.John Butler, commissioner to the Middle East for the Victoria government, said, “Victoria has announced it is looking to build on its 140 million Australian dollar (SR500 million) food, beverage and fiber exports to the Kingdom.”Victoria is open for business, with a triple A-rated econ-omy larger than that of Singapore and Hong Kong, he said, adding while it accounts for only three percent of Australia’s land mass, it is responsible for 25 percent of the country’s economic activity, he said.Victoria was in Saudi Arabia as part of a food and ag-riculture trade mission that saw 15 of the state’s leading companies exploring business and trade opportunities during the international agriculture and agro-industry trade show in Riyadh, which is regarded as the Middle East’s largest agriculture exhibition, he added.“The objective of this mission is for the companies to showcase their products and services, discuss business opportunities with potential Saudi partners, participate in business to business meetings, network and maintain

the existing relationship between Victoria and the King-dom,” said Butler.He added, “Saudi Arabia is Victoria’s sixth largest trading partner and its total export is valued to the tune of $750 million of which food and beverages contribute $140 mil-lion and the trend is increasing.”He stated that the trade balance is strongly in favor of Aus-tralia. “We deeply value the relationship we have with the Kingdom,” he asserted.Butler added: “The Victorian exporters taking part in this mission are committed to the Saudi food market and are ready to create new trade and investment, and develop even closer partnerships to increase exports to the Kingdom.”He maintained that the Middle East is a major and fast growing trading partner for Victoria.Butler, who also represents Victoria in north African coun-tries, said, “Victoria’s food and beverage, and fiber exports to the Middle East and North Africa in 2013 was worth $1.3 billion, a 15 percent increase on the previous year.He said the food and agriculture trade mission from Vic-toria consisted of food and agriculture sectors, including meat, dairy, animal feed, baby food, seafood, aquaculture, commodities and retail products suppliers, notably Bonk-ers Trading Group-Baby Royale, a halal baby food manu-facturer, and Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, Australia’s oldest dairy company and one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of dairy products in Australia.But apart from these there are other potential areas of partnership between Victoria and the Kingdom, which include automobile industry, Institutions of higher learn-ing in Victoria, including its capital Melbourne for higher education of young Saudi nationals.Sharing their names, he said the Saudi students can go to Monash University, Melbourne university and Li Taobe university, which are also partnering here with Saudi uni-versities to assist local students.


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NSW Trade & Investment and the Australian Industry Group hosted the launch of the Saudi Australian Business Council in Sydney. The event was held in the presence of the Saudi Ambassador H.E Nabil Al Saleh, the Chairman of Saudi Australian Business Council Tom Harley and the President of the New South Wales Legislative Council Don Harwin, amongst many other delegates in Australian Trade and Development.The Australia Saudi Business Council Inc. was estab-lished to develop and promote business and commer-cial links between Australia and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is Australia’s second largest trading partner in the Middle East with the total two way trade at 2.2 Billion dollars. With the initiation of the Saudi Aus-tralian business Council, both nations are confident in the increase of bilateral trade for mutual growth and development.The Saudi Ambassador began his speech by giving his condolences to those affected by the NSW bushfire’s and the fire fighters risking their lives to assist those in need. The Ambassador then continued to highlight the prosperity of the Kingdom and its achievements in modernisation and development. Mr Saleh also noted the Kingdom’s economic stability and rapid growth, having the largest economy in the Middle East with a GDP of 700 Billion dollars and a growth rate of 6.8% in 2012. The Kingdom also maintains itself as one of the worlds largest holders of foreign exchange reserves amounting to over 740 Billion dollars.Mr Saleh also noted the Kingdom’s various tactics and incentives to overcome the various economic chal-lenges it faces, including encouraging privatisation to encourage foreign investment and the reconstruction of various company laws. The Ambassador also said that the Kingdom is doing what it can to improve the

ease of doing business and finding commercial partners. This move has also been noted by the World Bank which placed it amongst the worlds top 25 countries in doing business.Tom Harley highlighted many positive examples of Aus-tralian business undertakings in Saudi Arabia, including the DowChemical petrochemical plant and its joint venture with Saudi Aramco. Mr Harley also recognised the importance of the 11,000 Saudi students in Australia, studying on the 500 million dollar King Abdullah scholarship. He noted that these students will return to the Kingdom with a valuable cultural outlook of Australia that will surely be beneficial in the future of bilateral relations.Mr Harley also thanked the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Business council to continue promoting ties be-tween the two nations in future trade and development.

saudi australia bulletin issue 64

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king abdullah bin abdulaziz

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