Taking off the Crown From UAE, KSA Moves “MBC Media Group” from Dubai to Riyadh

MBC Group (Middle East Broadcasting Centre) has signed an agreement with Badr bin Farhan,the Saudi Culture Minister Prince, about moving the channel to Riyadh as a base for its 24-hour news channel Al Arabiya and its breaking news channel Al-Hadath.

Operating under the same umbrella, Al Arabiya TV and Al Hadath TV Staff were told of the plans to move from Dubai progressively. The goal, as Saudi news agencies reported, is to “get multinational companies to relocate their headquarters to the kingdom.”

The New KSA

The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Media has announced its intention to stop contracts made with foreign companies and commercial institutions that have a regional headquarters in the region outside the Kingdom, starting from the beginning of the year 2024. Thus, with the Kingdom’s “portrayed” image as a preferred global business destination, Saudi Arabia has been pressuring international companies to put their Middle East hubs in the kingdom by the start of 2024 or risk losing out on business in the region’s largest economy.

Anyone can notice that Saudi Arabia has been trying to copy Dubai recently with the Jeddah Tower, new hotel, new terminal, and airline expansion. Clearly, Saudi Arabia is planning for the future as oil revenue won’t be sustainable indefinitely. 

 

As the Kingdom swiftly moves towards transforming its business and investment landscape, the country made solid and pragmatic regulations, in an attempt to give international and local entrepreneurs an alleged image of confidence and courage to come, live and work in Saudi Arabia.

Seeking to reinvest itself, Riyadh wants to produce 12 hours of news programming from the Saudi capital by early January. Famous Saudi news channels began moving their headquarters from Dubai to the Saudi capital, Riyadh

This comes as a result of the efforts of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to encourage multinational companies to move their headquarters to the Kingdom.

The rest of the staff will be supported to move progressively when everything is completed to start.

Hence comes the step of moving MBC Group to the Media City; a city in Riyadh that will host cultural, technology and media businesses, also China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba. The country is undergoing a cultural shift through the Vision 2030 reform programme to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on its energy sector, improve the quality of life for all Saudis and diversify its economy, as the Crown Prince Mohamad bin Salman intends to show, as political analysts close to the Royal Crown say.

 

Unfriended

This year presented a sharp turn in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in its economic aspects in particular, in conjunction with the challenges faced by the two oil countries, due to the decline in crude prices and the slowdown in the growth of investments.

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman had always been under Abu Dhabi strongman Mohammed bin Zayed's wing since 2015. Bin Salman did not seem bothered under UAE protection.The two countries have always been facing their political and economic challenges together, sharing the same opinion on many international issues under Donald Trump’s policy.

But in 2021, since the election of the American President Joe Biden, the relations of the two countries have gone back decades, through several decisions. This began with Saudi restrictions on foreign companies that do not have a headquarters on the territory of the Kingdom, in addition to oil disputes that surfaced during this period.

Dubai Media City has been home to some of the region's largest news companies for over a decade. Mohammed bin Salman was waiting for the decisive moment to turn the scales and remove the crown from the head of Ibn Zayed, who was considered his spiritual father. The announcement of the Media City in Riyadh, with an area of 60 thousand square meters, led to speculation that it would be in competition with Dubai’s highly successful Media City, the region’s leading media hub.

 

Honeymoon is Over

Over the past two years, it seemed to Momammed bin Salman’s inner circle that the assumed ally next door was not interested in creating win-win situations for both states so the honeymoon period of the Gulf power couple of the Trump era is certainly over. Recently, tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have made major headlines. In the video below, Dr. Andreas Krieg, a lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King's College London, Royal College of Defence Studies, discusses some of the dynamics and key issues shaping Riyadh-Abu Dhabi relations.
 

Accordingly, the differences between the UAE and Saudi Arabia appeared to the public, especially in the economic field, after the increasing political tensions between the two parties, as the UAE rejected, according to TRT WORLD WEBSITE, a proposal submitted by Saudi Arabia and Russia to extend the current agreement between the countries of the "OPEC Plus" alliance on oil production. The UAE often achieved its goals at the expense of Saudi interests. This pushed Salman to revenge. 

Last month, he decided overnight to abruptly suspend the travel of the Saudis to the Emirates, under the pretext of protecting them from the Corona epidemic. This resulted in the suspension of flights between the two countries in less than 48 hours. It means depriving the Emirates of the millions of Saudis who come annually for tourism and depriving the airlines of the two countries from tens of millions of dollars per week. This reflects the tensions between KSA and UAE and the end of the honeymoon period between both of them.

Defying economic rationality, Riyadh insists on establishing tourism projects similar to the UAE's, with costs amounting to tens of billions, at a time when it can boost its religious tourism and reach 30 million tourists at lower costs thanks to Hajj and Umrah. It is clear that this competition is not innocent at all.