With its project megacity and technology zone, the Saudis are seeking to consolidate an economic alternative to oil.

NEOM, an acronym for New Future, is the name of the new economic-technological city and area , with an area three times the size of Cyprus, that Saudi Arabia is promoting in the northwest of the country, opposite the Sinai Peninsula. In addition to seeking alternatives to oil, with NEOM the Saudis intend to rival the urban innovations of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. The project also involves shifting Saudi interest from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea and closer neighborly relations with Egypt, Jordan and Israel.

▲ Appearance of the future NEOM megacity, from agreement with the vision of its promoters [NEOM Project].

article / Sebastián Bruzzone Martínez

Middle Eastern states are seeking to diversify their revenues and avoid possible collapse of their economies, in order to counteract the end-of-oil crisis expected in the middle of the 21st century. The sectors favored by the Arabs are renewable energy, luxury tourism, modern infrastructure and technology. The region's governments have found ways to unify these four sectors, and Saudi Arabia, together with the United Arab Emirates, seems to want to position itself at the forefront of the Arab technology degree program .

While the world looks to Sillicon Valley in California, Shenzhen in China or Bangalore in India, the Saudi government has begun preparations for the creation of its first independent economic and technological zone: NEOM (short for the Arabic term Neo-Mustaqbal, New Future). The project was headed until recently by Klaus Kleinfeld, former CEO of Siemens AG, who has been replaced by Nadhmi Al Nasr as CEO of NEOM, following his appointment as an advisor to the Saudi Crown.

Last October 24, 2017, at the lecture of the Future Investment Initiative held in Riyadh, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made public this $500 billionproject , framed within the Saudi Vision 2030 political program. average The territory where NEOM will be located is in the border area between Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, on the shores of the Red Sea, through which almost ten percent of world trade flows, has a temperature 10ºC lower than that of the rest of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation committee , and is located less than eight hours' flight from 70% of the world's population, so it could become a major passenger transport hub.

As announced by the Saudi government, NEOM will be a special economic city, with its own civil and tax laws and Western social customs, of 26,500 square kilometers (the size of Cyprus multiplied by three). The main objectives are to attract foreign investment from multinational companies, diversify the oil-dependent Saudi Economics , create a free market space and home to millionaires, "a land for free and stress-free people; a start-up the size of a country: a blank sheet of paper on which to write the new era of human progress," says a promotional video from project. All this under the slogan: "The world's most ambitious project: an entire new land, purpose-built for a new way of living". According to the website and official accounts of project, the 16 sectors of energy, mobility, water, biotechnology, food, manufacturing, communication, entertainment and fashion, technology, tourism, sports, services, health and wellness, Education, and livability will generate 100 billion dollars a year.

Thanks to a report published by The Wall Street Journal and prepared by the consulting firms Oliver Wyman, Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Co., which, according to them, had access to more than 2,300 confidential planning documents, some of the ambitions and luxuries of the futuristic city have come to light. Among them are flying cars, holograms, a robot dinosaur theme park and Jurassic Park-style Genetics edition, never-before-seen technologies and infrastructure, luxury hotels, resorts and restaurants, mechanisms that create clouds to cause rainfall in arid areas, beaches with glow-in-the-dark sand, and even an artificial moon.

Another goal of project is to make NEOM the safest city on the planet, through state-of-the-art surveillance systems that include drones, automated cameras, facial and biometric recognition machines and an AI capable of reporting crimes without the need for citizens to report them. Similarly, the leaders of the urban initiative themselves predict that the city will be an ecological center of great projection, basing its power supply system solely on solar and wind energy obtained from panels and windmills, as they have a whole desert to install them.

For the moment, NEOM is only a project that is in the initiation phase. The territory on which the great city will be located is a terrain of desert, mountains up to 2,500 meters high and 468 kilometers of virgin coastline of turquoise blue water, with a palace and a small airport. NEOM is being built from scratch, with an initial outlay of $9 billion from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund Saudi Arabia Monetary Authority (SAMA). Apart from foreign business investment, the Saudi government is looking for workers from all professional sectors to help in their respective fields: jurists to draft a civil, criminal and tax code; engineers and architects to design a modern, efficient and technological infrastructure and energy plan; diplomats to collaborate in its promotion and cultural coexistence; scientists and doctors to encourage clinical and biotechnological research and wellness; academics to boost Education; economists to make income and expenditure profitable; personalities specializing in tourism, fashion and telecommunications... But above all, people and families to inhabit and bring life to the city.

As reported by the Arab newspaper Rai Al Youm, Mohammed bin Salman has C a proposal elaborated by a joint Saudi legal committee with the United Kingdom, which consists in providing a VIP document that will offer special visas, residency program rights to investors, senior officials and workers of the future city. business C ontracts have already been awarded to the US engineering firm Aecom and construction contracts to the UK's Arup Group, Canada's WSP, and the Netherlands' Fugro NV.

However, not everything is as ideal and simple as it seems. Despite the great interest of 400 foreign companies in the project, according to the local government, there is uncertainty about its profitability. The problems and scandals related to the Saudi crown, such as the imprisonment of family members and dissidents, corruption, unequal rights, the military intervention in Yemen, the case of the murder of journalist Khashoggi and the possible political crisis following the future death of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Mohammed's father, have caused investors to tread carefully. In addition, in the region where the city is to be built, there are villages of locals who would be relocated and "compensated and supported by social programs", according to the Saudi government, which will be criticized by groups of human rights defenders.

In conclusion, NEOM is a unique project and at the height of the Arab sheikhs themselves, who have adopted a farsighted economic vision. It is expected that by 2030 it will be possible to live in the city, even if construction is still underway and not completely finished. According to the markets, the project, still far from completion, appears to be on track. It already has a structure financing commitment with BlackStone of €20 billion, and technology financing with SoftBank of €45 billion. Since such a project has never been seen before and therefore there are no references, it is difficult to determine whether the visionary plan will be successfully consolidated or whether it will remain just smoke and mirrors and huge losses of money.