Saudi Arabia's 'Makkah Route', a government programme to help Hajj pilgrims, has been expanded to include Turkey and Ivory Coast this year, the kingdom's Ministry of Interior announced this weekend.
Makkah Route is a government programme to help Hajj pilgrims from a number of countries with visa, customs and passport issues, as well as dealing with health requirements, luggage, transport and housing arrangements in Saudi Arabia.
The initiative was launched in several countries in 2018 when the Saudi authorities began to put measures in place to ease travel procedures for pilgrims from abroad.
The service was introduced in Malaysia and Indonesia first, two of the countries with the largest proportion of Hajj pilgrims.
The expansion of the initiative will now serve pilgrims in seven countries including Pakistan, Morocco and Bangladesh.
All services are handled from the Hajj pilgrims’ point of departure in their home country or country of residence.
Once pilgrims arrive in the kingdom, they move directly to their place of residence in Makkah and Madinah via buses with a designated route and their luggage is delivered to where they will be staying.
Collaborative programme
The ministry implemented the initiative in co-operation with the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Health, Hajj and Umrah, the General Authority of Civil Aviation, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority “SDAIA”, “Doyuf (Guests) Al Rahman Program”, one of the Saudi Vision 2030 executive programmes, and the General Directorate of Passports.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed an agreement earlier this week to implement the Road to Makkah initiative, which will help simplify immigration procedures for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims from Pakistan.
Saudi Deputy Minister of Interior Dr Nasser Al Dawood and Pakistani Minister of Interior Rana Sanaullah signed the agreements in Islamabad on Wednesday, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
In the first phase, the service will be available at Islamabad International Airport, where around 26,000 pilgrims will be able to use it, and the service will then be extended to Karachi and Lahore airports.
Hajj flights from Pakistan began on May 21, with the final flight departing for Saudi Arabia on June 21.
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What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
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