Saudi Arabia changes oil focus

Beijing. January 24. Silkroadnews - Saudi Arabia’s authorities aim to develop the country’s economy based on its intensive diversification, while removing focus from its crude part, the Tajik Telegraph Agency (TajikTA) reports on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia enters the post-oil era and hopes that the “mega-cities of the future”, a number of which are under construction, will ensure the diversification and growth of the country’s economy, the Managing director of King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) Fahd Al-Rasheed spoke to CNBC at the Davos forum.
“We are talking now about moving to a service economy post oil, and I think the economic driver in the future in Saudi Arabia is going to be these mega-cities,” the agency quoted him saying.
Al-Rashid oversees the creation of KAEC, which is expected to contribute to the growth of Saudi Arabia’s trade with the rest of the world. The city was founded in 2006 on the Red Sea, 100 kilometers from Jeddah.
Riyadh officials believe the region adjacent to the Red Sea could become a major driver of global economic growth.
In October 2017, Saudi Arabia announced plans to build an innovative city of NEOM on the Red Sea. Investments in the project at the initial stage will amount to $500 billion, the funds will be allocated by the government of the kingdom, its sovereign fund and private investors.
In April 2016, Riyadh launched a broad and ambitious socio-economic reform plan known as “Vision 2030” to transforming the kingdom’s economy over the next 15 years.