His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has announced the launch of NEOM. ​The new city on the Red Sea coast promises to remake the Kingdom as it seeks to diversify its economy.​ It is planned to become one of the world’s future economic and scientific capitals, and the future commerce capital of Saudi Arabia. NEOM will be located in the north-western region of Saudi Arabia, including territory from within the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, to comprise a total area of 26,500 km².

NEOM’s strategic location will also facilitate the zone’s rapid emergence as a global hub that connects Asia, Europe and Africa, enabling 70% of the world's population to reach it in under eight hours, which brings the potential to combine the best of major global regions in terms of knowledge, technology, research, teaching, learning, living and working. 

At a glance:

• NEOM is set to be the world’s first independent special zone
• It is set to become one of the world’s future economic and scientific capitals
• It will be developed independently of the Kingdom’s existing governmental framework, similar to the freehold scheme of UAE and Oman
• It will be backed by more than $500 billion over the coming years by Saudi Arabia and local and international investors 
• This new foreign direct investment should help strengthen the Saudi Arabian economy
• Its location will facilitate the emergence of a global hub that has the potential to bring together the best of Arabia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and America 

“NEOM will focus on nine specialized investment sectors and living conditions that will drive the future of human civilization, energy and water, mobility, biotech, food, technological & digital sciences, advanced manufacturing, media, and entertainment with liveability as its foundation. The focus on these sectors will stimulate economic growth and diversification by nurturing international innovation and manufacturing, to drive local industry, job creation, and GDP growth in the Kingdom. NEOM will attract private as well as public investments and partnerships, and will be backed by more than $500 billion over the coming years by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, local as well as international investors”, said HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Chairman of the Public Investment Fund (PIF). 

He continues, “NEOM will be constructed from the ground-up, on greenfield sites, allowing it a unique opportunity to be distinguished from all other places that have been developed and constructed over hundreds of years and we will use this opportunity to build a new way of life with excellent economic prospects. Future technologies form the cornerstone for NEOM’s development: Disruptive solutions for transportation from automated driving to passenger drones, new ways of growing and processing food, healthcare centred around the patient for their holistic well-being, wireless high speed internet as a free good called “digital air”, free world-class continuous online education, full scale e-governance putting city services at your fingertips, building codes that make net-zero carbon houses the standard, a city layout that encourages walking and bicycling and all solely powered by renewable energy just to name a few. All of this will allow for a new way of life to emerge that takes into account the ambitions and outlooks of humankind paired with best future technologies and outstanding economic prospects”.

Repetitive and arduous tasks will be fully automated and handled by robots, which may exceed the population, likely making the NEOM's GDP per capita the highest in the world. All these elements will put NEOM at the world’s forefront in terms of efficiency which will make it the best destination in the world to live in. 

For further information on NEOM please visit the Discover NEOM website.

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