Business & Money | Saturday 1 February, 2020 12:29 am |

stc announced 9 new awards for this year to honor their partners in success partners within the company’s program to promote local content Rawafed, during the 9th Partner Day ceremony organized by the company at the Fairmont Hotel, in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Khaled Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal Al Saud, Chairman of the Board of Directors of stc Group, as well as His Excellency Dr. Ghassan bin Abdulrahman Al-Shibil, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Local Content and Governmental Procurement Authority, and Haitham bin Abdul Rahman Al-Ohali, Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology, in addition to more than 175 suppliers and partners of the group, and the executive directors of supplying and a number of concerned government agencies.
During the ninth Partner Day ceremony, His Excellency Chairman of the Board of Local Content and Governmental Purchases Authority Dr. Ghassan bin Abdulrahman Al-Shibil praised the stc group’s Rawafed Program, which reflects the Authority's goals in developing content, especially through the Local Content Partnerships initiative and the Local Content Coordination Council, which includes stc group as a member. The initiative represents one of the strategic paths of the Authority to develop and maximize local content in cooperation with its partners from the public and private sectors. His Excellency also valued the group’s initiative to establish innovation centers in cooperation with suppliers, government agencies and research centers, which also contributes to achieving integration with the Authority’s goals in localizing the industry, transferring knowledge and launching new industries.
His Excellency Al-Shibil added, “We worked at the Local Content and Governmental Procurement Authority with our partners at stc group to harmonize the local content methodology, and to measure the baseline of the telecommunications and information technology sector in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
For his part, Chairman of stc Group, Eng. Nasser Al-Nasser, affirmed that the Rawafed Program is witnessing remarkable interaction from various stc partners from global suppliers. He added, “Supporting local content is part of the goals set for the 2030 vision and for stc, which plays a vital role in realizing the Kingdom’s vision and goals whether as a digital facilitator or as a local content enhancer”. 
Meanwhile, Eng. Emad Alaoudah, Vice President of Procurement and Support Services, stressed that stc launched the Rawafed Program within the company’s strategy to promote local content and innovation in 2017 in the areas of localization of jobs, local manufacturing, and supporting small enterprises and innovation. 
He pointed out the value of stc purchases from small and medium-sized companies amounted to 4 billion riyals, and the Rawafed Program succeeded in raising the percentage of localization of leadership jobs and raising the percentage of Saudization by its global and local partners from contractors by about 20%, which is an annual increase rate of around 60% during the coming years. The company has also been signing memoranda of understanding with the stc’s top 10 partners.
Alaoudah explained that the company sponsored 10 innovative digital projects for Saudi entrepreneurs through the Inspire U business incubator, as the market value of the projects sponsored by the incubator reached 300 million riyals.