SA, Saudi set up holding company
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa and Saudi Arabia announced yesterday a joint holding company which will focus on mining, petrochemicals and agriculture investments in the two countries.
The Saudi Arabian SA Holding (Sasah) company is a 50-50 joint venture which should lead to 20 billion rand ($2.4 billion) worth of business opportunities, according to a statement from South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.
The company could become a major shareholder in “strategic joint ventures,” the statement noted.
The oil giant is one of several Gulf countries the government in Pretoria has been courting in an effort to bring in new investments to boost the local economy.
South Africa is also looking for ways to export its expertise in mining. Davies said Saudi Arabia could tap his country’s technology base for Middle East mining projects.
Last year, trade between the two countries increased by 32.6 per cent to reach 34 billion rand, according to government gures. In April, the two states announced their intention to see the number reach 60 billion by 2017. DAMSCUS — The UN observer mission in Syria yesterday expressed concern about escalating violence in the central city of Homs and said it is trying to negotiate the evacuation of civilians as helicopter gunships moved in in central and northwestern Syria in a bid to snuff out armed opposition.
“The impact from the ghting was heard and seen over the neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh in the city centre,” the UN Supervision Mission in Syria said in a statement.
“UNSMIS has also received reports of a large number of civilians, including women and children trapped inside the town and are trying to mediate their evacuation.”
It added that reports of a large number of casualties could not yet be con rmed.
Activists said Khaldiyeh and two other neighbourhoods were under siege and Red Crescent teams were blocked access.
UN observers also reported heavy ghting in Rastan and Talbisseh, north of Homs, the UN statement said.
“In Talbisseh, UN observers reported that the Free Syrian Army captured Syrian Army soldiers.”
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 74 people were killed across Syria yesterday.
The rebel positions were targeted from the air in AlHeffa, in the northwestern province of Latakia, and in Rastan, in the central region of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Government troops have been trying to to put down ghters of the Free Syrian Army deployed in the rugged countryside near the Turkish border, activists said.
Activists said yesterday’s assault was violent and described the situation in AlHeffa as “terrible,” although there were no immediate reports of any casualties.
“Army tanks are deployed at the entrances of the town,” activist Sema Nassar said in Beirut via Skype.
Four civilians, including a girl, were killed in the violence.
Troops have trying to overrun Rastan since ghters from the battered city of Homs regrouped in the town.
Elsewhere, at least nine people were killed in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, where rebels and regime forces clashed, while a blast in the northwestern city of Idlib killed a civilian and seven government forces.
Also in Idlib, 11 were killed, including three rebels, six government troops, two women and a teenager, according to the watchdog, while in the northern province of Aleppo, two people were killed as clashes intensi ed.
And after days of violence in the capital, a booby-trapped car exploded in the central district of Barzeh killing one person, the Observatory added, while gunmen shot dead a ruling Baath party of cial in the city suburbs. — Agencies