Saudis to build new Red Sea mega-city costing $500bn investment
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced plans Tuesday to build a new mega city covering 25,000 sq.km on the Red Sea coast, to be linked to Jordan and opposite Egypt. He promised it would offer a lifestyle not available in today’s Saudi Arabia. The new town called Neom will be autonomous and operate outside Saudi Arabia’s government and constitutional limits. Economic experts say that Riyadh is in effect establishing a free trade zone.
Vanity projects are always the high water mark of an empire. The implicit admission that Saudi Arabia’s laws are not on par with international standards is a bit of a quiet delight. But the idea of a new city populated by people with deeply ingrained Islamic values suddenly coming into accord with “international” (sometimes known as “Western”) values is extremely unlikely. And that’s just the start of this project’s improbabilities.
Still, it will be fun to watch it unfold.
Curious on the level of Israeli involvement.
It is hardly a city, it’s a small country. Israel has 8000 something square miles. This alleged city is 10000 square miles.
This is downright hallucinatory. What next? Will the Saudis now build a new planet next to the Earth for 400 quadrillion dollars? Just absurd.
the mileage seems to be for the “free zone” i.e non-theocratic
not a city that large!
Are they getting prepared to drop the $US and pass all expenses on stupid investors, or what?
But, on a positive note, maybe all gaza and west bank will move there for jobs during contruction and development..
Border control is going to be interesting.