The UAE Internal Auditors Association and Saudi Internal Auditors Association have signed a cooperation agreement to jointly work the Internal Auditing domain.

The agreement was signed by Abdulqader Obaid Ali, Chairman of the Board of UAE Internal Auditors Association and Abdullah Saleh Al-Shebeili, CEO of Saudi Internal Auditors Association.

The agreement is the outcome of the keenness of the two organisations to effectively support and enhance their existing strategic partnership relations to ensure its advancement and development on a continuous basis and for laying the foundations for cooperation for integration of their objectives and enhance the strategic role in achieving strategic goals.

Abdulqader Obaid Ali said: “We are pleased to sign the joint cooperation agreement to exchange our common experiences, which will contribute to the development of the profession in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. This will raise the capabilities of the Internal Auditors in the two brotherly countries to advanced levels to keep pace with future challenges facing the profession and comply with professional standards.

On his part, Abdullah Saleh Al-Shebeili said: “We are pleased to sign this agreement, which comes in response to the aspirations of the leaderships of the two countries to deepen and enhance joint cooperation in various fields, given the growing interest in the Internal Audit profession in Saudi Arabia and the UAE parallel to their level of development and prosperity experienced.”

The agreement aims to help develop a framework for corporate governance to enhance investor confidence; establish strategic alliances with regulatory and legislative authorities; work on developing the Internal Audit profession, and provide expertise and specialisations, and work to localise it in the two countries.

The agreement defined the frameworks for joint cooperation between them in several areas, most notably the participation in the preparation and organising of Internal Audit conferences; exchange of experiences in the field of quality assurance; training under the HASAAD Development programme; joint nomination of speakers at specialised conferences in the two countries and other areas of cooperation.

Earlier the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) and Emirates had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost inbound tourism into Saudi Arabia and attract new segments of travelers across the airline’s extensive global network. The new agreement aims to capitalise on the airline’s global network of over 120 cities to raise awareness and amplify the Saudi Arabian experience for leisure travellers to come and visit the Kingdom’s unique attractions.

The MoU underscores the importance of partnerships within the travel eco-system and the role different stakeholders play to support a more resilient recovery.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Emirates together with the Saudi Tourism Authority will explore opportunities to jointly collaborate on key initiatives to enhance the Kingdom’s global tourism competitiveness, including promotional activity and travel trade support across key global source markets to convert interest into bookings, sharing insights around market and customer trends, amongst other initiatives.

Through the strategic partnership, the airline will also explore opportunities to align its schedules from key source markets in the Emirates network to its gateways in Saudi Arabia, providing greater connectivity and convenience for its customers and further developing inbound tourism arrivals. Emirates and the Saudi Tourism Authority will also evaluate ways to enhance the travel experience that cultivates a more supportive visitor infrastructure for those journeying to Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Medina, the airline’s four gateways.

The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) has inaugurated two new development projects in the water and housing sector and laid the foundation stone for a project in the transportation sector in Djibouti, with a total amount of $137 million.

During an official visit to the East African nation, Saudi Fund for Development CEO, Sultan Bin Abdulrahman Al-Marshad, met with the President of the Republic of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh to discuss the projects financed by SFD for economic and social development worth $305 million since 1982.

As part of the visit Sultan Bin Abdulrahman Al-Marshad and the Prime Minister of Djibouti, Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed, inaugurated a new project to supply clean drinking water to 45,000 people in the coastal Province of Obock. Funded with a grant of $10 million provided by Saudi Arabia through the SFD, it will involve the construction of 105km of water pipes and eight water tanks to pump clean water from the Bissidiro region.

SFD CEO and Prime Minister also laid a foundation stone to upgrade 60km of the Djibouti-Galafi arterial road, which was originally funded by Saudi Arabia through the SFD, with $120 million. The road provides a vital economic and trading link with its neighbour countries.