News

ConFex Saudi Arabia To Take Place On October 23rd & 24th

The expo showcases how digitalization and cutting-edge tech are shaping the construction and real estate industries in Saudi Arabia and beyond.

Published

3 years ago

September 25, 2023

Nour Nasir

confex saudi arabia to take place on october 23rd and 24th

The Construction Technology ConFex KSA (CTF KSA) is a two-day immersive event exploring the technology revolutionizing Saudi Arabia’s Built Environment and Giga Project. Co-organized by the Saudi Contractors Authority (SCA), ConFex takes place at the Crowne Plaza, RDC Hotel in Riyadh on October 23rd and 24th.

Confex will showcase how digitalization and advanced tech are shaping construction and real estate in Saudi Arabia. Event organizers expect over 600 attendees, who will join 60 expert speakers and thought leaders in architecture, design, engineering, and construction, plus influential policymakers and investors.

Event themes include advanced technologies driving the built environment, Smart & Future Cities, Digital & Innovative Deliveries, Data Intelligence, and Sustainability. Speaking topics and workshops will cover a wide range of subjects, including:

Virtual construction
Decarbonization of the built environment
The internet of things (IoT)
Machine learning
Predictive data analytics
Digital twins
Building information modeling (BIM)
Building management system software

Confex is an important event for the construction and smart city technology sector. With the industry projected to research a value of nearly $15 billion by 2027, Saudi Arabia is rapidly becoming home to some of the world’s most advanced and futuristic building concepts.

Also Read: Bahrain Plans To Develop 300 Smart Factories By 2026

The Saudi Arabia Giga Project program — a cornerstone of the Vision 2030 program — is the world’s most extensive civil infrastructure initiative. Meanwhile, developments like NEOM, with its massive $500 billion budget, represent the largest construction projects globally. Furthermore, Red Sea tourism projects, valued at $8.5 billion, place a large emphasis on digital and smart delivery, while the $2.4 billion Roshn housing project aims to cut emissions by an estimated 18%.

To learn more about Saudi Arabia’s biggest Construction Technology Confex, head to the official website.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

7 days ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.