DHAHRAN DIGEST 4

C O N F I D E N T I A L RIYADH 000123 SIPDIS SIPDIS DHAHRAN SENDS PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2016 TAGS: ECON PGOV ENRG SCUL KWMN SA SUBJECT: DHAHRAN DIGEST 4 REF: 2005 RIYADH 8890 Classified by Acting Consul General Ramin Asgard for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). -------------- The Limits of Civil Society -------------- ¶1. (C) One of post's Shi'a contacts, Mohammad Alltaleb, who doesn't mince words and, if his stories are true, is equally brazen in his actions, says he recently applied to the local branch of the Ministry of Social Affairs to start a self-help organization, with the goal of seeking MEPI funding. According to Alltaleb, the Ministry official told him to work through existing charitable societies. When Alltaleb told the official he wanted to and was entitled to start his own organization, the official refused, searching out an old regulation that, the official said, made it impossible. -------------- The Saudi Stock Market and Divorce -------------- ¶2. (SBU) While we were waiting in the office of a Shi'a judge in Al-Hasa, a petitioner came to the judge on behalf of his daughter, who was seeking a divorce. The judge told the petitioner that his daughter's papers were not fully in order and that he needed to get the proper signatures and then come back. Frustrated, the petitioner told the judge that his daughter's husband was trying to delay the divorce in order to use her name to buy stocks. (Note: Several IPOs are taking place on the Saudi stock market, and individual subscribers are limited to a certain number of shares. End note.) The judge was firm, telling the man to come back as soon as his papers were in order, but assuring him that, once the divorce was final, his ex-son-in-law would have to stop speculating in his daughter's name. -------------- Women in the EP: Elections and a Catch-22 -------------- ¶3. (U) The Eastern Province (EP) Chamber of Commerce & Industry postponed its upcoming elections, which had already slipped from January to early February, to February 19, ostensibly in response to complaints from female candidates that they were not given enough lead time to prepare for the elections. Female candidates face an uphill battle: the two major slates of candidates had, for the most part, formed before it was clear that women could run, and women are not represented on them. On another note, a female architect described a catch-22 to PAO. She asked an official at the Ministry of Industry for permission to start her own architectural consulting firm, her business plan being to offer her clients an independent review of their architects' designs. The official told her it was necessary to have two years experience working at an architecture firm before she started her own firm. She pointed out that there was no way she could get this experience in the EP, as none of the firms had a separate work area for women. The official agreed that she was in a difficult bind, but offered no solution. -------------- And a Catch-22 for Electricity Infrastructure -------------- ¶4. (C) According to Khalid Al-Turki, a prominent EP businessman who sits on the government board that regulates the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC),SEC is running into difficulties in raising the capital necessary to upgrade the Kingdom's electricity infrastructure. Although the government is a significant shareholder, SEC is a publicly traded company. The Ministry of Finance (MoF),according to Al-Turki, is refusing to provide SEC capital for its infrastructure projects, saying that SEC should raise the money through stock or bond issuance. However SEC is unprofitable and unable to raise money without guarantees from the government, which the MoF will not provide. (APPROVED: ASGARD) OBERWETTER