Chances are if you’ve seen any of the high-quality, professionally-produced promotional videos from Saudi government authorities or leading Saudi companies anywhere online, you've seen some incredible drone footage of Saudi Arabia. The 966 welcomes on to the program for Episode 109 Mohammed Ghazi and Abdulhadi Azouz from the aerial drone production company AZAerials, which films many of these amazing shots for high-profile public and private sector entities including the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Sports, Saudia Airlines, Aramco, MDLBeast, the General Entertainment Authority, Riyadh Season, Netflix, and many others. They are the Saudi-based drone operators and film producers creating the footage from the skies using state of the art drone technologies giving the world a never before seen view of a changing Kingdom. They've also worked on several of Saudi Arabia's jaw-dropping "drone light shows" at major events, creating images in the sky using hundreds or even thousands of drones for spectators below. The 966 hosts discuss their journey as Saudis growing up in America who moved to the Kingdom recently to take advantage of the significant opportunities in the filmmaking and content creation industry in Saudi Arabia and how Vision 2030 has created an opportunity for them as entrepreneurs.
Before the discussion, the hosts discuss Richard's One Big Thing, which is an overview of the Kingdom's efforts to create a car industry from scratch with a diversified set of investments and initiatives that are just now gaining traction in Saudi Arabia.
Then the hosts discuss Lucien's One Big Thing, which is Saudi Arabia's forecasted non-oil economic growth in 2023 and beyond. Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan addressed Saudi Arabia’s economy and fiscal situation in 2023 and beyond during his speech at the FII in Riyadh, noting that Saudi Arabia’s non-oil gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by around 6% this year and said it would continue to see similarly healthy growth in the years ahead.
The hosts conclude as always with Yallah! 6 top storylines on Saudi Arabia to get you up to speed heading into the weekend.
•A White House readout reported that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohamed bin Salman about the situation in the Middle East region.
•JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser and other top names on Wall Street were in Saudi Arabia for the 7th FII investment conference as they try to look beyond risks that the Israel-Hamas war could widen into a regional conflict and deal a new blow to the global economy.
•Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Tuesday that recent multi-billion dollar acquisitions by U.S. oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron of smaller rivals showed that hydrocarbons were "here to stay".
•A “boundary-pushing” esports festival is to take place in Saudi Arabia next summer. The inaugural Esports World Cup was announced by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during The New Global Sport Conference and will be held annually.
•South Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Constructionand Hyundai Engineering have signed a $2.4 billion contract with oil giant Saudi Aramco to build a gas processing plant, Seoul's presidential office said on Tuesday.
•NEOM has today announced the inauguration of its strategic investment arm, the NEOM Investment Fund (NIF), NEOM’s wholly owned subsidiary which is set up to support the buildout and development of NEOM’s 14 priority sectors and deliver long-term value while enabling creation of jobs in NEOM.