Saudi Arabia’s $500bn city of the future NEOM will be ready to welcome tourists and investors by 2024, according to the project’s CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr.
NEOM is billed as ‘the land of the future’ and will be 33 times the size of New York City. It is being developed as part of the country’s attempts to diversify its economy away from oil.
“We spent two years transforming the vision into a strategy, as this strategy concerns all sectors of NEOM,” Al-Nasr said in an interview with Asharq (via Arab News).
“We finished last year with strategies, then moved on to planning and implementation and now we have entered the implementation phase,” Al-Nasr added.
Saudi Arabia’s giga-projects
NEOM, which overlooks the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, recently hosted nearly 150 design and construction companies in its search for contractors and investors.
The destination will be powered by renewable energy sources. NEOM has joined forces with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology to create the world’s largest coral garden at Shushah Island.
“One of our missions at NEOM is to reinvent conservation for the good of the natural world and for future generations to enjoy,” said Al-Nasr. “Our coral reef collaboration with KAUST is a vivid example of how we are doing that.”
NEOM previously revealed plans to open its first hotel by the end of 2022, with up to 15 hotels launching between 2023 and 2025. It also unveiled a zero-carbon city called THE LINE at NEOM.
Images: NEOM
