Saudi prince pushes on with $500 billion megacity as U.S. points the finger over Khashoggi killing | Reuters
It seems an unlikely vision, a megacity in the desert with no cars or roads, all run by machines that can recognise your face.
Yet preparations for NEOM, the $500 billion signature project in Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s drive to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy, are well underway. The organisation behind the development, expected to be close to the size of Belgium when it is completed, will hire 700 people this year, according to Simon Ainslie, the venture’s chief operating officer.
While NEOM is being sold as a vision of a brighter future, international investors have yet to bite.
The scale of the project is vast and the region already has well-established transport and business hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. The development is also inextricably linked to the Crown Prince, who as de facto leader of the kingdom has drawn ire over Saudi’s war in Yemen and his own alleged links to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
A U.S. intelligence report released last week concluded the prince approved an operation to “capture or kill” Khashoggi, who had criticised Saudi policies in columns for the Washington Post. Saudi officials deny this and have rejected the report’s findings.
Analysts say the report is unlikely to change investor sentiment towards Saudi Arabia in the absence of U.S. action against the prince.
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