Taiba unit will operate a Hilton hotel in Riyadh’s upcoming stc Square

HOSPITALITY-

Smart Zone Hotel, a subsidiary of Taiba Investments, will operate a 159-room Marriott International hotel in Riyadh’s stc Square, a disclosure to Tadawul shows. Smart Zone will take a slice of the hotel’s revenue and operating profit under the 20-year agreement, which can be extended for up to 10 additional years. The hotel will open in 4Q 2027.

INFRASTRUCTURE-

#1- The National Water Company (NWC) has broken ground on 23 water and two sanitation projects in Asir Province at an investment cost of some SAR 960 mn, state news agency SPA reported.

NWC is on a building spree: PIF-owned NWC kicked off nine drinking water and sewage network projects in Madinah in mid-May at an estimated cost of SAR 500 mn, days after launching 12 water projects in Eastern Province worth SAR 1.5 bn.

#2- The Eastern Province Municipality plans to launch tenders for 16 projects in the city of Khafji this year, SPA reported. They include a five-star hotel, hospital, driving school, community school, boulevard, movie theater, wedding hall, and retail stores, among others.

AVIATION-

New Uzbekistan airline Air Samarkand will operate two weekly flights between Samarkand and Jeddah. It finished its flight between the two countries on Tuesday, the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a post on X. The airline plans to add a route to Madinah starting next month, according to the Uzbek news outlet Kun.uz.

SPACE-

The Saudi Space Agency has launched a Concurrent Design Facility which will use concurrent engineering and advanced simulations to conduct space mission studies more efficiently, according to a statement from the agency. The facility aims to cut the time required for preparing feasibility studies for space missions by 75% and reduce the cost of designing space systems by 50%.

What is so special about concurrent engineering? Concurrent engineering is an approach to product development that allows different departments to work simultaneously and communicate back and forth on designing and developing products — in this case space missions studies — which leads to cutting production costs and time. This is entirely different from the linear approach of traditional sequential engineering, where production stages are carried out one after another, with no overlapping feedback.