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Saudi Arabia will launch a 300 billion riyals ($80 billion) Neom Investment Fund. The fund will invest in companies that agree to operate in NEOM, the kingdom's most expensive and ambitious project aimed at diversifying from the oil economy.
The Neom Investment Fund could potentially expand to 400 billion riyals, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told reporters in Jeddah, Bloomberg reported.
NEOM, one of the most important projects of Saudi Vision 2030, is a 26,500-square-km high-tech development along the Red Sea with several zones, including business, industrial and logistics areas. It will be a zero-carbon city, running on renewable energy.
The NEOM business zone will likely be publicly listed in 2024, al-Ekhbariya TV reported citing Mohammed bin Salman.
"NEOM will add a trillion riyals ($266 billion) to the Saudi stock market value. At least 1.2 trillion in the beginning and the overall will increase after project completion to exceed 5 trillion," Reuters reported quoting the crown prince as saying.
The Line
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman first unveiled plans for The Line, a major construction project for the $500 billion NEOM project, in January 2021.
On Monday, he revealed designs of The Line, which is 200 meters wide, 170 kilometers long and 500 meters above sea level. It will eventually accommodate 9 million residents.
“The Line offers a new approach to urban design: The idea of layering city functions vertically while giving people the possibility of moving seamlessly in three dimensions (up, down or across) to access them is a concept referred to as Zero Gravity Urbanism,” NEOM said in its website.
“Different from just tall buildings, this concept layers public parks and pedestrian areas, schools, homes and places for work, so that one can move effortlessly to reach all daily needs within five minutes,” it said.
(Writing by Seban Scaria; editing by Daniel Luiz)
