“Plan until 2030… Population 1.5 million → 300,000, length 170 → 2.4km”
Neom City, a futuristic new city ambitiously launched by Saudi Arabia’s powerful figure, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (hereinafter referred to as ‘Crown Prince Bin Salman’).
Global attention has been focused on this $500 billion (approximately KRW 684 trillion) mega project, which includes a mirror city with a capacity of 1.5 million people and a total city length of 170 km, but as the expected cost continues to increase, Saudi Arabia is actively helping overseas investors, including China. There are reports that they are asking for help.
According to the US Business Insider and the UK’s Bloomberg News on the 22nd (local time), the Saudi government is reportedly planning to invite hundreds of bank officials from around the world to the Neom City site within this month. Unlike in the past when only one or two key figures were invited, hundreds of people were invited at once.
Bloomberg noted that the main event of this event was a field trip. Previously, Saudi Arabia was active in attracting foreign investment related to Neom City, but citing security reasons, it only released models and concept videos and rarely made on-site public announcements.
However, this time, they are making active moves to attract investment by inviting hundreds of people to tour the floating port cities of Shindala and Oksagon within Neom, and the hidden marina of the mirror city ‘The Line’.
Additionally, Business Insider said that Saudi Arabia is actively seeking to attract Chinese investment. Last week, NEOM officials reportedly visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong to meet with Chinese investors.
However, Leonard Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Association, told AFP that the tour “made Neom feel ‘less’ mysterious” and that “although it is an ambitious project, the response was mostly neutral.”
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia has significantly reduced the number of residents and the size of Neom’s mirror city, ‘The Line’, located in the desert, compared to the initial announcement. The background was explained that this was because the Saudi sovereign wealth fund (PIF), which was responsible for financing the initial project costs, had recently spent money on high-tech industries and sports events, but failed to approve the projections.
Initially, it was announced that 1.5 million people would live by 2030, but the projected number of residents was recently reduced to less than 300,000, and the length of the city, which was expected to be 170 km by then, was reduced to 2.4 km.
Reporter Seo Hee-won [email protected]
