Neom

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Location of Neom

Neom ( Arabic نيوم Niyum , DMG Niyom ) is one of the Government of Saudi Arabia proposed planned city with adjoining technology park in the northwest of the country near the Gulf of Aqaba and on the coast of the Red Sea .

The project, conceived as a future mega-city and presented for the first time in Riyadh on October 24, 2017, was initiated by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman . It is intended as a milestone in the country's future planning for the post-oil era. The project is expected to cost around 420 billion euros and is an attempt by Saudi Arabia to diversify its income in the wake of the global collapse in oil prices in 2014. The entire project is part of the “ Vision 2030 ”. It is not the first time that the country has committed to building a planned city. At the time the project was presented, another four megacities, including the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), were under construction.

background

"Neom" is a suitcase word , merged from "neo" ( ancient Greek for "new") and "m" for "mustaqbal" ( Arabic مستقبل for the future").

The technology park connected to the planned city is to be built in an area of ​​26,500 square kilometers - roughly the size of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or 37 of Singapore - most of which is located in Saudi Arabia. Investments of up to 500 billion US dollars are planned for this, for which Saudi Arabia guarantees. A large part of the money is to be financed by the Saudi state fund PIF ( Public Investment Fund ). The initial public offering of Saudi Aramco is to contribute to the financing . One goal of the project is to attract foreign capital and investors to the kingdom. New economic areas are to be funded in order to put the Saudi economy on a broader basis for the future, including biotechnology, energy and water as well as media development.

Neom is to become an independent economic zone that has its own legal and tax system, but is not politically sovereign. Notwithstanding the restrictive regulations for women in the rest of the country, they are allowed to move around here without a male companion and can do without wearing the abaya .

In the north-west of the country, an area on the Red Sea was selected that borders Egypt and Jordan . The plan is to cross the Strait of Tiran with a bridge between the islands of Tiran and Sanafir , which were disputed for a long time between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The bridge would create a land connection from North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and thus to the Middle East, bypassing Israel.

For his Neom project, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gives some radical guidelines. All services and standard processes should be "100 percent automated" and "carried out by robots".

Neom is supposed to feed its energy needs exclusively from wind and solar power. The project aims to make Saudi Arabia's economy less dependent on oil. It is part of the “Vision 2030” economic restructuring project. The first construction phase should be completed in 2025. The project is headed by the German manager Klaus Kleinfeld as CEO of the project company.

Reactions

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk Kultur , Sebastian Sons from the German Society for Foreign Policy described the project as an "attempt to put Saudi Arabia in the 'pole position' internationally in terms of modernity and economic development". A “new Silicon Valley” should emerge. The extent of the project is gigantic.

The journalist and Middle East expert Gudrun Harrer believes that despite the “PR machinery” and little specific information, it cannot be dismissed as a mere advertising stunt if the crown prince of the strictly Salafist kingdom declares that he “wants to rely on moderate Islam”.

The Swiss journalist and Middle East expert Fredy Gsteiger points out that Saudi Arabia lacks its own capital, qualified workforce and transparent standards to implement the project. Now, "a kind of hype should be created" to attract foreign investors. Similar large-scale projects like Masdar in Abu Dhabi showed that this could fail.

criticism

The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported in May 2020 on the resistance of long-established Bedouins against the project. There are reports of evictions, and more and more tribesmen are resisting the plans. The Saudi human rights organization Alqst reports several arrests of tribal members who refused to leave their homes. Abdulrahim al-Howeiti, who addressed his compatriots in a video message, was particularly effective in the public eye. His home is for sale - shortly afterwards he was killed. Abdulrahim belongs to the al Howeitat tribe who have inhabited southwest Jordan, the Sinai and northwest Saudi Arabia for centuries.

In a video he says that his hometown Al-Khuraybah will be one of the first to give way. He spoke of “forced resettlement” and “state terror” and reckoned with Mohammed bin Salman's rule: the local population would have to disappear in order to enable more than a million foreigners to live a luxury life. Since then, the criticism of the authorities' actions has continued. The human rights organization Alqst accuses them of “covering up” the killing by bribing members of his tribe with five-figure sums in order to deny him and “renew their allegiance”.

SZ author Dunja Ramadan also describes the conflict as one between the old and the new Saudi Arabia. Mohammed bin Salman's dealings with long-established tribes could upset many Saudis, for whom change and opening are going too fast.

See also

Web links

 Wikinews: Saudi Arabia plans mega-city  - news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ What does Saudi Arabia's mega project 'NEOM' actually stand for? In: al-Arabiya . October 24, 2017, accessed October 28, 2017.
  2. ↑ Sven Clausen: 500 billion dollars for Neom: Ex-Siemens boss Kleinfeld is to build Saudi Arabia's megacity. In: Spiegel Online. October 24, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Gabriel Knupfer: Neom: Saudi Arabia is planning the city of the future . In: Handelszeitung . October 26, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  4. ↑ Saudi Arabia is planning a megacity, larger than Styria plus Carinthia . In: The Standard . October 24, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  5. ↑ Saudi Arabia is planning a megacity . In: Saxon newspaper . October 24, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  6. ↑ NEOM. Retrieved October 24, 2017 .
  7. ↑ "Sophia": Saudi Arabia naturalises robots . In: The Standard . October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  8. ↑ Ex-Siemens boss is to plan futuristic megacities for Saudi Arabia . In: sueddeutsche.de . October 24, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  9. ↑ Saudi Arabia wants to build a megacity for 500 billion . In: faz.net . October 24, 2017. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
  10. ^ Peter Brors, Thomas Jahn: Klaus Kleinfelds Arabian fairy tale . In: handelsblatt.com . October 25, 2017, accessed on October 30, 2017 (beginning of article freely available).
  11. ↑ A sign to the West - for 500 billion dollars , Sebastian Sons in conversation with Dieter Kassel. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur . October 26, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  12. ^ Gudrun Harrer: Saudi Arabia between megalomania and reform . In: The Standard . October 28, 2017, Retrieved October 30, 2017 (analysis).
  13. ↑ Isabelle Maissen: “Neom” - City of the Future: More than a Fata Morgana? In: SRF . October 25, 2017, accessed on October 23, 2018 (interview).
  14. ↑ Middle East Eye: Killing of Saudi activist exposes tensions over Neom megacity project . You Tube, April 17, 2020 (accessed May 14, 2020)
  15. ↑ Dunja Ramadan: “Built on sand and blood.” In: Süddeutsche Zeitung (Politics Department), May 12, 2020 (also SZplus ).