Business & Money | Tuesday 3 May, 2016 5:40 am |

Saudi Aramco and Princess Nourah University (PNU) in cooperation with Wipro, an Indian IT services corporation, inaugurated in Riyadh on Monday Saudi Arabia’s first all-women business and technology park (WBP), which is expected to create nearly 21,000 jobs by 2025.

The park in the PNU premises includes entrepreneur incubators, daycare centers and a one-stop coordination center for government transactions, a press statement issued by Wipro said on Monday.

WBP, a joint venture of PNU, world’s largest university for women, and Wipro Arabia, had Saudi Aramco as the strategic advisor and anchor of this initiative.

The joint venture is responsible for developing the facilities and infrastructure at the park, as well as training and employing up to 21,000 Saudi women.

The all-women business and technology park is envisioned to be the largest engineering drafting services, business process services and IT hub in the region for industry sectors including oil and gas, government, manufacturing, healthcare, telecom and construction.

“Dedicated to working women, this business park is a first of its kind project aimed at providing knowledge-based employment for women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the press statement added.

Wipro’s larger rival Tata Consultancy Services had established its first all-women Business Process Services (BPS) center in Riyadh in 2013 where 1,000 women work in BPO operations, 85 percent of whom are Saudi nationals.

“The goal of the WBP is to create 21,000 jobs by 2025 and give women a critical role to play in a way that serves the objectives of the nation and to build a knowledge economy with societal and international partnerships,” Huda Al-Ameel, Rector of Princess Nourah University said.

The aim is also to provide a start-up ecosystem to upcoming entrepreneurial ventures, she added.

“In a country where women represent about 60 percent of all university graduates, but less than 15 percent of the country’s workforce, the Women’s Business Park is poised to be a milestone initiative,” she said.

Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro, said it is the company’s endeavor to foster an environment that encourages and enables more women to participate in business and tap their leadership potential.

“It has been more than a decade since Wipro began its operations in the Kingdom and localization has always been an important aspect of our business strategy here,” he added.

Saudi women occupy only 13 percent of private and public positions occupied by nationals despite accounting for 51 percent of Saudi graduates, according to statistics from the Central Department of Statistics.

The statistics also showed 64 percent of graduates from Saudi universities in 2010, 2011 and 2012 were women.

The traffic police prevented the buses transporting women teachers and girl students from using Mahd Al-Dahab-Safina road for their safety.

The traffic police and the Civil Defense personnel were stationed along many roads to prevent motorists from using them.

The Madnah region received heavy rain during the past few days, flooding valleys and inundating streets.

The rain, according to a number of residents, has exposed the fragility of the roads, which were badly asphalted.

Director of Roads and Transport in Madinah Abdullah Al-Ahmadi said the traffic on major roads including the Makkah-Madinah expressway was normal.

He added that the grouping of the visiting pilgrims went on smoothly.

He, however, said there are substitute roads for the pilgrims to use at times of emergency including the Hijra road and the Madinah-Yanbu-Rabigh road.