Strikes cripple German rail network and airports

Rail workers went on strike across Germany on Friday, bringing national operator Deutsche Bahn's services largely to a halt, in the latest of a series of stoppages over pay in Europe's largest economy.

The walkout, organized by the EVG union, was due to run from 0100 GMT, though the train network was expected to be impacted for the whole day.

State-owned Deutsche Bahn said all its long-distance connections would be cancelled and that few commuter trains would run.

The EVG, which is negotiating on behalf of 230,000 workers, is seeking a 12% wage increase, or at least an additional 650 euros (US$715) per month. Deutsche Bahn has offered 5% and one-off payments of up to 2,500 euros.

Germany has witnessed some of its most disruptive strikes in decades since last year, when the war in Ukraine sent energy and food prices soaring, leading to union pressure for wages to rise in line with living costs.

High inflation has also exacerbated labour problems in sectors like aviation that have faced a difficult transition following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Friday's transport strike was set to coincide with a walkout at four German airports - Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne Bonn and Stuttgart - by members of the Verdi union.

A strike at the first three locations on Thursday led to around 700 departures being cancelled.

 

 

Saudi Arabia to privatize airports and roads

Mohannad Basodan, CEO of the National Center for Privatization (NCP), unveiled the plans to privatize the airports of Abha, Taif, Hail and Qassim, as well as about 4,500 kilometers of modern roads in the Kingdom.

In an interview with Al-Arabiya, Basodan said that a series of privatization projects has been announced and these include around 200 approved projects, of which about 140 projects have been made available to local and international investors.

“The Kingdom has the largest series of privatization projects in the region, which include various qualitative investments, and these are made available in advance to give investors the opportunity to prepare well in advance before their offering,” he said while noting that the series of privatization projects in the Kingdom includes the airports of Abha, Taif, Hail and Qassim, and about 4,500 kilometers of modern roads.

Basodan said that privatization in the health sector includes general hospitals, university hospitals, health services, laboratories and radiology. “In the education sector, it includes school buildings, colleges of excellence, establishment of model institutions, in addition to water and wastewater treatment projects,” he said.

Basodan noted that these projects are scheduled, and 60 projects were launched in the last period, and there are projects in various phases of the preparation period. He stated that the NCP had succeeded, during the past five years, in awarding contracts for 43 projects, ranging from partnership, sale of assets, or institutional transformation.

“The first quarter of 2023 witnessed the signing of contracts for projects in the transport sector, including Spanish-Saudi, and Chinese-Saudi alliances. There is a diversity of operations to attract foreign investors and available projects.”

It is noteworthy that the National Center for Privatization has identified 200 projects available to local and international investors, with the aim of giving them sufficient period of time to learn about privatization projects in the Kingdom and their nature before officially offered to the market.

Earlier, Minister of Finance Muhammad Al-Jadaan urged to continue publishing details about projects for privatization so as to enhance partnership between the public and private sectors and attract new international investments. This is also aimed to enable the local private sector to benefit from the announced opportunities.