Day: April 2, 2024

Riyadh: The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced that the share of retail consumer electronic payments -one of the Financial Sector Development Program’s KPIs- reached 70% of total retail payments in 2023, up from 62% in 2022.

This achievement is attributed to the significant growth of payments processed through national payment systems in 2023, which reached 10.8 billion transactions compared to 8.7 billion transactions in 2022.

In recent years, the Kingdom has witnessed rapid growth in the adoption of electronic payments as a result of an integrated, strategic, and collaborative approach across the financial community.

The evolving cost-effective and reliable e-payment system helps enhance transaction efficiency, and support financial stability.

SAMA will continue its efforts to provide payment choices and promote the use of digital payments through further development of the national payments infrastructure and enhancement of payment related services. Additionally, it will work with its partners to facilitate economic activities.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Doha: The State of Qatar strongly condemned the Israeli raid that killed a number of aid workers in the Gaza Strip, considering it a shocking crime that violated international laws and humanitarian norms.

In a statement today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed the State of Qatar’s complete rejection of the weaponizing food against civilians in the war on Gaza, and stressed the need for aid to reach all areas of the Strip unhindered.

The Ministry reiterated the importance of strengthening regional and international efforts for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as well as ensuring accountability and non-impunity for all crimes committed as a result of the horrific war.

Source: Qatar News Agency

Doha: The representation office of Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) in Yemen has completed the construction of 83 24-m2 2BHK housing units, as part of a project to shelter disaster-affected families in Taiz, at a cost of USD 418,424 (QR 1,525,155).

The project is aimed at encouraging internally displaced people (IDPs) to return to their home villages, by providing safe and appropriate shelters that ensure protection against extreme winter and summer weather conditions.

Over the past couple of years, QRCS completed several shelter projects. These included the construction of 105 and 85 housing units for disaster-affected and poor people in Hadhramaut and Raymah respectively in partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

QRCS’s office in Yemen had been selected among the top shelter providers in the country, according to OCHA’s shelter cluster report on humanitarian partners during the first half of 2022.

At a total cost of QR 37,498,000, QRCS will implem
ent nine shelter projects for 21,420 beneficiaries in six countries as follows: Palestine (Gaza), Syria, Yemen, Niger, Somalia, and Afghanistan. These projects include the construction, restoration, and rehabilitation of homes; provision of furniture, solar panels, and shelter kits (blankets, mattresses, etc.); and construction of model IDP villages.

During 2023, QRCS implemented 20 projects of shelter and nonfood items (NFIs) almost 22 percent of its total international operations at a cost of QR 45,345,315, for the benefit of 753,395 people in Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Niger, Bangladesh, Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq.

QRCS invites the rich to support this year’s plans to provide shelter and NFIs for those in need (all of which are eligible to Zakat in accordance with Sharia rules and laws) via several means especially designated for this purpose.

Source: Qatar News Agency

Amman: King Abdullah II of Jordan discussed Tuesday the latest developments in the Gaza Strip with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is visiting Jordan.

The two` sides deliberated the need to bring the Israeli aggression on the enclave to an end, protect civilians and double and sustain the relief and medical aid access to Gazans.

King Abdullah II reiterated that peace and stability in the region would remain inaccessible without a just settlement of the Palestinian cause, on the basis of the two-state solution.

Furthermore, he stressed the need to press on supporting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), to enable it to provide its services according to its UN mandate, especially amid the current catastrophic situation in Gaza.

Source: Qatar News Agency

Doha: Banquets vary during the holy month of Ramadan in each country, as Muslims of all races and regions rejoice to celebrate.

Traditional dishes are unique, as they have their own distinction that cannot be affected by globalization, or by the process of acculturation between countries and peoples.

Among the Qatari pioneers who carried the torch of introducing the Qatari cuisine regionally and globally is the Qatari author and presenter of cooking programs Chef Aisha Al Tamimi. Al Tamimi accumulated experience for decades, whether by presenting cooking programs on Qatar TV or other satellite channels across the region, or by cooking on board Qatar Airways in first and business class.

In this regard, Chef Aisha Al Tamimi told Qatar News Agency in a statement that, considering the great demand for traditional dishes that she recently received after presenting her cooking to her family as well as various foreign communities in several events, she chose to share her experience with the world through her book
‘Mawaed (Traditional Qatari),’ which was launched in 2023 in its second edition.

Al Tamimi pointed out that she always works to spread the culture of Qatari cuisine and introduce its components, whether through participation in international festivals or exhibitions, stressing that food is an important component of civilization as well as the cultural heritage of every people around the globe, given that it is an element of heritage.

Cuisine is not merely food, but rather a social heritage full of life experiences inspired by the past, especially when combined with the holy month of Ramadan, where ‘Thareed’ and ‘Harees’ are the main dishes on the Qatari table, she added.

Source: Qatar News Agency