JEDDAH — Makkah Emir Prince Khaled Al-Faisal honored winners of the 5th Makkah Award for Excellence at a ceremony held at Jeddah Hilton Tuesday night. During the ceremony, the Emir watched a documentary on the award and its accomplishments over the past five years. He then gave away prizes to the winners. On their part, officials of the firms that won the prizes expressed happiness over the achievement, and thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Crown Prince Salman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, and Prince Khaled for their support and encouragement that enabled them to win the prizes. The Makkah-based Universal Caravan for Tourism Services Company has won the award for excellence for Haj and Umrah services. The company was honored for its outstanding quality services in transporting Haj pilgrims. The award for excellence for Umrah services went jointly to Saudi Public Transport Co. and Hafel Co. The two companies were chosen for the award in recognition of their contributions to improve the quality of transport services rendered to Haj and Umrah pilgrims. The award for excellent administration went to the Haj Terminal at Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport for its streamlined services, which contributed to reducing time for pilgrims' travel procedures. The Jeddah Economic Forum bagged the award for economic excellence for its outstanding services in presenting an exemplary model for the economic development of not only the Kingdom but also countries in the Middle East region. The Prophetic Values Project, launched by the Education Department in Makkah region, won the cultural excellence award. The community excellence award was bagged by the SEDCO Holding Co. for its flagship corporate social responsibility program, Riyali. The architectural excellence award went to the new headquarters building of the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a landmark green buildings project. The award for environment excellence went to AlBaik fast food chain for maintaining quality in terms of consumer health as well as the quality of work and environment, while the award for scientific and technical excellence was bagged by Faisaliyah School for the Gifted, which is regarded as the first government school in the entire GCC region exclusively for the gifted and talented students. Meanwhile, the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) held on Wednesday a function on the occasion of its winning the Makkah Award for Economic Excellence for the successful conduct of the Jeddah Economic Forum. Speaking on the occasion, Saleh Kamel, president of JCCI, said the award was an outcome of excellent teamwork with the objective of contributing to sustainable national growth and development. “The JEF is instrumental in accelerating economic development in the Middle East region as well as in creating more job opportunities and addressing the unemployment problem,” he added.
