Saudi Arabia has won a bid to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games at a planned mountain resort that is part of its $500 billion Neom smart city project.
The kingdom will become the first nation in western Asia to host the games, at which more than 32 countries are expected to participate.
“With the unlimited support by the Saudi leadership & HRH Crown Prince to the sport sector, we are proud to announce we have won the bid to host AWG TROJENA2029 as the first country in west Asia,” Saudi Sports Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki said on Twitter.
Saudi Arabia submitted a letter of interest to the Olympic Council of Asia in August and a decision was reached this week by the Olympic Council, which held its executive board and general assembly meetings in Cambodia on Monday and Tuesday.
The games will be hosted at Neom's Trojena development, which is set to be completed in 2026.
Trojena will offer outdoor skiing amenities, a man-made freshwater lake and a nature reserve, according to the project's website.
The development, a new global destination for mountain tourism, was announced by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in March.
Trojena is intended to act as a catalyst for economic growth and diversification, in line with the kingdom's goals under the Saudi Vision 2030 economic framework.
It is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs and add 3 billion Saudi riyals ($800 million) to the kingdom’s economy by 2030.
Key facilities
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Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
* Agence France Presse
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