Pakistan is ready to provide land to the Kingdom in order to cultivate rice, Syed Naveed Qamar, minister of finance, investment and privatization, said while inaugurating the Saudi-Pak Investment Conference at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation confirmed it was blocking the import of raisins into the Yemeni market in order to encourage domestic production of this important cash crop, said Dr. Mohammed Yahya al-Gashm, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.