Arab Women Moving Fast, But Still Far to Go

Korean company to sell Railway Engine, Coaches to Saudi Railway Project

Saudi Mining Company to execute railway project.

A Korean company will supply new engines and coaches for the proposed multibillion railway link.The much talked about railway project linking Riyadh with northwestern Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC countries will be constructed jointly by the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maadin) and Saudi Oger, according to Minister of Communications Dr. Nasir Al-Salloum. The Saudi government would bear 50 percent of the project’s cost. According to the Saudi Minister, the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry is planning to establish a company to finance the railway project, which will facilitate cargo transport from the minerals-rich northwestern regions to the industrial cities in the Central and Eastern provinces.

The Supreme Economic Council (SEC) of the Kingdom decided to start a $2 billion railway expansion project to the private sector. A special team is formed to study the proposed railway project linking Jeddah, Yanbu and Madinah. SRO will sign an agreement with a Korean company for the purchase of new railway engines and coaches. SRO was preparing to buy 24 new railway coaches at a cost of SR100 million. The Saudi Railway will also extend the railway to the Second Industrial City in Riyadh . The proposed railw link will connect Jeddah and Dammam, two leading ports. It is estimated that some 23 million passengers will also use the railway a year.The railway linking the Arabian Gulf and the Riyadh Region with Red Sea will cover a total length of 1,500 kilometers.

First Arab Human Development Report spotlights gains against poverty

keralamonitor.com Tuesday, 2 July 2002: The Arab Human Development Report 2002, launched in Cairo, Egypt, today, highlights the substantial human development achieved by the 22 Arab states — with their 280 million people — over the past three decades, while also focusing on the challenges that the region still faces.

Life expectancy in the region has increased by 15 years, the report says, while mortality rates of children under five have fallen by two-thirds, and adult literacy has almost doubled. Moreover, the region's growth has been "pro-poor," and as a result there is much less abject poverty — defined as an income of less than a dollar a day — than in any other developing region in the world.

But the report also says that much still needs to be done to provide people in the region with the political voice, social choices and economic opportunities they need for a better future. It outlines the challenges faced by the Arab states in strengthening personal and institutional freedoms and boosting broad-based citizen participation in political and economic affairs.

The report, commissioned by UNDP and written by experts from the Arab world, is the first of its kind for the region."The report was written by Arabs for Arabs," said Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States. "It's intended to provide an accurate diagnosis of the problems facing the region in order to help find solutions."

The report was launched at the headquarters of the League of Arab States. In addition to Ms. Hunaidi, speakers included Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the League and Fayza Aboulnaga, the Egyptian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

Arab Women Moving Fast, But Still Far to Go

Arab women have made considerable progress over the decades. The Arab region shows the fastest improvement in female education of any region, with female literacy
expanding three fold since 1970, and primary and secondary enrolment doubling.
However, the region’s performance is weak in terms of empowering women to seek
and benefit from opportunities for economic and political participation.

In 1995, the Global HDR introduced the Gender Empowerment Measure (GE M) to
measure the participation of women as reflected by income per person, women’s share
of professional and technical positions, and women’s share of parliamentary seats. The
Arab region’s ranking is lower than any region except sub-Saharan Africa, as can be
seen in Figure 1. The region has the lowest rate of women’s participation in the work
force and the lowest rate of representation in parliaments - women occupy only 3.5% of
all seats in parliament. Poor levels of participation pull down the region’s GEM ratings
considerably.

India is the safesty Tourist Destination, claims Hotel Assocaition Survey

New Delhi July 4, 2002 keralamonitor.com The Results of the Snap Survey conducted by Hotel Association of India (HAI) at the instance of the Department of Tourism in a number of leading hotels spread across the country indicate that the foreign tourists in India did not perceive any kind of threat to their safety and security and would gladly recommend a visit to India to their friends and associates. Tourists from over 20 countries had participated in the Survey. All of them said that contrary to advisories issued by some orgnisations, India is safe and secure destination.

A similar exercise was done by the Indian Association of Tour Operators and other tourism related agencies wherein they interviewed foreign tourists at Airports, hotels and places of tourist attraction to assess their safety and security related perceptions. The results confirmed the findings of the Snap Survey that the foreign tourists felt extremely safe in India and were not worried in any way about their security. The Survey and the interviews were conducted in the light of recent developments and the Travel Advisories issued by a number of countries advising their nationals against travel to India.

Expressing satisfaction at the results of the Survey and the interviews, Smt. Rathi Vinay Jha, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism has expressed the hope that media, particularly international media would play a more positive role in projecting ground realities and spread the word that India is a safe and secure destination for tourists. She also clarified that despite the negative publicity about safety environment in India in the recent past, about 9.7 lakh tourists visited India between January and May this year. "We are looking forward to welcoming larger number of tourists in the months ahead", she added.