#Saudi prince powers ahead with futuristic city and sports giga-projects | Financial Times

Saudi prince powers ahead with futuristic city and sports giga-projects | Financial Times:

Saudi Arabia's King Salman, centre, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, attend a launch ceremony for the
Qiddiya project, a vast sports and entertainment complex, in Riyadh in April 2018 
© Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Reuters

Saudi Arabia is forging ahead with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s flagship giga-projects, awarding billions of dollars of contracts despite Riyadh being forced to impose swingeing austerity measures as it grapples with the twin shocks of coronavirus and low oil prices.

With Riyadh facing its worst financial crisis in decades, it has already taken the dramatic step of tripling value added tax to 15 per cent, suspending benefits of the civil service, which employs most Saudis, and warning that it will have to reprioritise spending.

Many Saudis had expected the three highly ambitious schemes — Neom, a $500bn futuristic city; Qiddiya, a vast sports and entertainment complex; and a high-end Red Sea tourism development — to be victims of state spending cuts.

But executives at the flagship developments told the Financial Times that Prince Mohammed had insisted that the giga-projects move ahead as planned. “He’s completely committed to this vision and he wants to make sure that everybody associated with it, from me on down, is crystal clear that we ‘stay the course, move this forward, don’t let anything get in the way’,” said Michael Reininger, chief executive of Qiddiya.