Advisor to the Custodian of Two Holy Mosques, Emir of Makkah Prince Khalid Al-Faisal on Sunday Sha'ban 11, 1438H honored the winners of Makkah Excellence Award in its 8th session including UQU Vice Presidency for Business and Innovation who won the Award in the area of scientific and technical excellence together with the founder of Makkah Snap, Mr. Ayman Yousef. Present in the ceremony were Governor of Jeddah Prince Misha'l bin Majid bin Abdul-Aziz, Deputy Emir of Makkah Prince Abdullah bin Bander bin Abdul-Aziz. Al-Faisal also opened the art exhibition accompanying the ceremony which included his paintings showcased recently at King Faisal Palace at Al-Mathaar area in Riyadh and the proceeds were used to support King Faisal University.   

In his remarks, the Emir of Makkah extended congratulations to the winners, thanks to the audience and appreciation to the organizers.

On awarding the cultural excellence to  Historic Jeddah Festival, the Governor of Jeddah Prince Misha'l bin Majid bin Abdul-Aziz delivered speech saying " I would like to extend my thanks to your highness for the concern and great support attached to historic Jeddah festival who reaped fruits of your efforts from the beginning until today…  I would also like to appreciate the General Secretariat of Makkah Excellence Award for grating the excellence award to historic Jeddah festival thus indicating the importance of preserving the cultural heritage, consolidating it among the young people and introducing the life of our ancient fathers and grandfathers to them".  

He added that: "Again I would like to express to your highness my utmost gratitude for this noble appreciation and want to assure that this success which we all cherish was not a product of an individual work or sector but it has only been reaped through the collective effort based on team spirit. It was really an integrated institutional work gathering all initiatives and ideas of the sincere efforts made by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, General Entertainment Authority, Jeddah Municipality, Police, Security Patrols, Traffic Directorate, General Department of Civil Defense in Jeddah, Benchmark Company, the Organizer of the Festival. When seeing the growing numbers of the visitors of Historic Jeddah Festival amounted to 5 million and 290 thousand, we thank Allah for granting us success to achieve the sought-after objective. Please allow me to confer this noble appreciation to Jeddah people and all those who joined us in this regard in cognizance of their efforts, stressing to your highness continuation of our efforts, initiatives, collective work to serve this precious part of our beloved country".      

Within the same vein, the Advisor to Makkah Emir, and the Secretary General of Makkah Excellence Award Dr. Hisham Al-Falih said in his Speech " I was thinking what to say in this special evening because I know no one has supported this event like the one who I am going to introduce,  the one who deserves directing my address to him in this gorgeous evening, is the star of our ceremony, the godfather of our achievements and sponsor of our initiatives, our beloved Prince Khalid Al-Faisal.  

"Your biography, our beloved prince, is a unique example of excellence, your march in serving the country can't be ignored and can't escape the notice of anyone", he added.  

"You started your career with the youth and established an entity to take care of them and planted a tree there which is yielding its fruits every season, you then moved to Aseer region and achieved miracles turning the region into a favorable tourism destination. At the Grand Mosque, you prayed and set the vision of the region starting your dream journey to the high peaks. In Makkah, you became the leader of education and contributed to it in the manner which pleases you.  In evidence of your kindness to Makkah, you came back to it, adding new glory to the old one, and carrying out your march with determination and insight", Dr. Al-Falih expounded.               

He elaborated “you have a great biography, blessed achievements and people whom you know or you don't even know are praying for you".

He added: "we and your deputy congratulate ourselves for having you. Our celebration this year witnessed participation of King Faisal University in setting and organizing art paintings of Prince Khalid Al-Faisal. It also witnessed the honorable attendance of the Deputy Emir of Makkah HRH Prince Abdullah bin Bander bin Abdul-Aziz attending his first occasion in the region.  We welcome him in the next to Al-Faisal, and in the vicinity of the Grand Mosque and in the region of excellence. He went on to say our beloved prince once said "All Makkah People deserve honor", however the committee of Makkah Award for Excellence managed to select the best of choices and to honor the outstanding figures. On this occasion, we congratulate them and congratulate Makkah for having such outstanding figures wishing them more success and excellence".     

For his part, UQU President Dr. Assas delivered speech saying " Dear participants, I want to express my happiness of two things, the first is that the seed planted by Umm Al-Qura in the field of technology and entrepreneurship has yielded its fruits and those who contributed to it, have reaped fruits of their dedicated efforts leading the nation to celebrate such achievement. Secondly, Umm Al-Qura University has added to its leadership in the field of sharia, a technological leadership proving that sharia education is not an obstacle in the path of civilizational development". 

He added "I still remember the moments when the university represented by the Vice Presidency of Business and Innovation laid the foundation of this project which intended to shift the university function from indoctrination to formation, and from formation to empowerment, a necessary triangle for contemporary universities, as only delivering information has become insufficient for a world mired in challenges, however student skills must be honed to help him face life difficulties and achieve miracles".      

"It comes as no surprise for Makkah as the capital of Muslim nation, land of revelation and launch pad of prophet Mohamed (PBUH) civilization, to embrace such creative project  ... feeling the great honor of being in the neighborhood of the Grand Mosque has been one of the most important motivations for Umm Al-Qura to racing against time, overcome difficulties and endeavor to achieve bright future as Makkah deserves our utmost respect", Dr. Assas elaborated. 

 He went on to add that the success and excellence of Makkah is attributed to Emir who attaches significant concern to civilizational pioneership, knowledge-based economy, and youth of the region, he is the Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques HRH Prince Khalid Al-Faisal. He added that Prince Al-Faisal supported the university technological pioneership project and was present in opening ceremony of Wadi Makkah building and delivered speech then saying: "Nations compete in the field of science, without giving attention to natural wealth or oil revenues but only invested their minds in science and technology and achieved excellence and proficiency", we appreciate such insight and prudent vision.      

Concluding his speech, Dr. Assas extended sincere thanks to the government of this blessed land led by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Crown Prince, and Deputy Crown Prince. He also appreciated the Emir of Makkah for his keenness and the Minister of Education for his lasting attention. It didn't escape his notice to extend his thanks to those who started the project from the beginning including Dr. Nabil Abdul Qadir Koshak, the President of Al-Baha University and the ex-UQU Vice President for Business and Innovation who was the backbone of this project together with all the staff involved with him in this regard.  

At the conclusion of the Ceremony, Prince Khalid Al-Faisal honored the winners including; 

Firstly; the Award in the category of Excellence in Hajj and Umrah Services was bagged by the Security Committee in Hajj.

Secondly; Makkah Police won the award in Administrative Excellence in recognition of their outstanding efforts in arresting the wanted criminals and their quick response to the information they receive.

Thirdly; The Award for Cultural Excellence went to the Jeddah Historic Festival for its outstanding role in activating the culture and heritage of the region.

Fourthly: Nesma Holding Co. for Contracting bagged the award for Architectural Excellence in recognition of its completion of several pioneering projects in the region on a time-bound basis by using highly advanced technology as well as Saudi expertise and workforce.

Fifthly: The Community Excellence Award was shared by:

 
1-    Al-Wedad Charity Foundation for its outstanding role in achieving principles of Takaful, caring for orphans and children with unknown parents and qualifying them to engage in the community and participate in its development and progress. 
 
2-      Al-Mawaddah Society for Family Development, in recognition of its excellence in achieving sustainable social program for building families and reducing divorce rates by providing stability for family and society.  

Sixthly: Maaden Company at Al-Duwaihi Gold Mine project in Al-Khurma region secured the Economic Excellence Award for its role in improving the gold production by employing Saudi staff.   

Seventhly: Abdullah Al-Sahli has won the award in the category of Environmental Excellence at the Asfan Industrial Project and the quick implementation of the Integrated Asfan Industrial City project fulfilling all the environmental and technical features and requirements.

 Eighthly: the Scientific and Technical Excellence Award was won by:

1-    UQU Vice Presidency for Business and Innovation for launching a number of scientific initiatives and inventions to transfer the national economy into sustainable, Knowledge-based economy and employ the scientific research to serve the nation.
2-      The Saudi young man Ayman Al-Sharif founder of Makkah Snap to harnessing technology products and an easy and outstanding manner and for participating in reflecting a number of projects in the region to the world. 
     

Ninthly: the Human Excellence Award was shared by: 

1-    Dr. Habib Zainul Abideen for his contributions in implementing development projects at the Holy Sites in his capacity as the supervisor of the central projects department at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.
2-    Ambassador Muhammad Tayyib, director general of the Makkah branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for his efforts in correcting the status of members of the Burmese community and his representation of the Kingdom at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in an excellent way.

3-     Dr. Howaida bint Nawaf Al-Harthy for her outstanding contributions as the first Saudi engineer specialized in Islamic architecture and for her participation in evaluating pioneering projects in the region and the Holy Sites. 

 It is also worth mentioning here that the ceremony was attended by UQU Vice President for Academic Development and Community Service, the acting UQU Vice President for Business and Innovation, Dr. Hani bin Osman Ghazi, UQU Vice President for Branches Dr. Abdul Majeed Al-Ghamdi, UQU Vice President for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research, Dr. Thamir bin Hamdan Al-Harbi, UQU Vice President for Educational Affairs Dr. Abdul-Aziz Al-Sorouji, Deans of the supportive Deanships, CEO of Wadi Makkah Dr. Faisal Al-Alaf , heads of Wadi Makkah startups and a number of university officials.