How Ireland does business with Saudi Arabia, a regime with a dubious human rights record

While Bellew and Gammell get a new airline off the ground, DAA International is helping to open a new Saudi airport. Last year, the agency won a contract to operate the Red Sea International Airport, which is being built on Saudi’s west coast. DAA International already manages Terminal 5 at King Khalid International Airport, where Riyadh Air will be based, and recently won a five-year contract to manage King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, the main entry point for pilgrims to Mecca.

Kingspan, engineering companies Nicholas O’Dwyer and the Jones Group, plus Alliance Aviation Group are among the Irish companies doing significant business in Saudi Arabia. Ornua has a base in Riyadh, where it manufactures white cheese using Irish dairy. There is a strong Saudi connection with London, where royals and sheikhs own properties, but they have never looked across the Irish Sea. “Their focus is their own society and economy, and pouring money into that,” Corneille points out.

That all said, he finds the Saudis to be “very nice” people, who are highly educated, like having fun and live in cities that are safe. “Our perceptions of them need to change as Saudi Arabia is embracing the future and new technologies. They are the best people to do business with and I love it here.”

Ulick McEvaddy, the aviation entrepreneur who has been doing business in Saudi Arabia for 30 years, says engaging will achieve more than withdrawal. “They are changing. The pressure from the West is helping them to moderate their thinking on human rights,” he says. “It’s better not to disengage but to keep them under pressure, saying, ‘You can’t be doing that kind of stuff.’ It does make a difference.

Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)

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