Interest in Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion NEOM smart city project “has not been affected” by a recent backlash against the kingdom following the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and work on the project has made “considerable progress”, the development’s chief executive officer told attendees on the last day of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh last week.

When asked during a panel discussion on Thursday if he had seen any reluctance among international partners in recent days or any sign that attracting interest would be a challenge going forward, the CEO of NEOM, Nadhmi Al-Nasr, was upbeat about the project’s future prospects.

“I can tell you what I have been doing for the last three days. I have been leading tens of meetings behind closed doors here with all the partners we have been talking to over the past two years. And the emphasis of all these meetings is commitment and ‘let’s go’ and ‘let’s move on’,” he was quoted as saying in a press statement issued on Friday.

“The business we are in has not been affected... NEOM is beyond any business. NEOM is the future look of the whole world, the wise people of the world see this as a opportunity for the whole world to turn its vision into reality. I am so proud of our partners,” he added.

The NEOM city project, which is a 26,500 square kilometre new city which will stretch 460 kilometres along the Red Sea coast, was unveiled by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the first edition of the FII summit in Riyadh last year.

This year’s event was overshadowed by news that dozens of high profile business and media leaders had cancelled their attendance to the event in the wake of the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. While Saudi officials have admitted he died as a result of an altercation at the consulate, the investigation into his death continues.

Despite this, Reuters reported on Wednesday that $50 billion of deals had been signed at FII, with most of these relating to investment in the oil and gas sector. The kingdom's national oil company, Saudi Aramco, said that it alone had signed deals worth $34 billion.

The NEOM release said the city aims to be “a leading global model in various spheres by focusing on advanced industries and technology, with robots being used for many services and power being generated solely from wind and solar energy”.

The city will operate independently from the “existing governmental framework” with its own tax and labour laws and an “autonomous judicial system”, the release said, with Al-Nasr adding that it will be a “country within a country, an economy within an economy”.

“Many people, most of you may be are saying ‘what has happened since last year?’” Al-Nasr told the forum.

“I can tell you that over the past 12 months there has been massive work. There is a team working day and night, going through the steps that we have to do to bring NEOM on the ground.

“Planning is the name of the game… It is not a programme or a project that we can push through without doing the planning and the right process.”

He said the first year had focused on developing the strategy behind the project: “Phase 1 is behind us... defining the vision, explaining the objectives and now in Phase 2 we are identifying all the economic sectors of NEOM, all the living standards, all the living style and community. We are not just building an economy, we are building cities, towns.”

A major cornerstone of the Crown Prince’s Vision 2030 plan to overhaul the Saudi economy and reduce its dependence on hydrocarbon revenues, a total of 16 economic sectors had been identified as priority areas for NEOM.

Each of the 16 sectors “is being reviewed, studied, challenged, [in terms] of business plans and exploring what it takes to make this sector,” Al-Nasr said.

“Hundreds of NEOM team members, among them consultants; among them the whole globe are working with us, looking at the details of the details of every sector. At the end of this phase, which is around May or June of next year, we will be able to say which of those are firm, concluded and approved. And for those approved, we move to the next step which is designing and planning that will lead us into the execution and construction....

“At this stage we have been calling on everyone here who has interest in reaching us, approaching us, expressing interest in any business we have in NEOM, we take every interest seriously,” he said, adding that he hoped that at FII 2019 he would be able to make his presentation at the NEOM site itself.

Further reading:
• Saudi Arabia's $500 Billion NEOM GigaProject Progressing Steadily - CEO says
• Saudi reforms paying off, as gigaprojects surge ahead 
• Saudi signs deals worth $50bln at investment event, despite boycott
• Bringing in the neighbours: UAE firms sign agreements worth $24bln with Saudi body
• Saudi Arabia still moving ahead with three major development projects 
• NEOM's target is to generate $100bln of income in a year
• Over $800bln invested in Saudi construction projects
• ZAWYA Special Coverage: Saudi Future Investment Summit

(Writing by Shane McGinley; Editing by Michael Fahy)
(shane.mcginley@refinitiv.com)

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