Saudi Arabia has scaled back its medium-term ambitions for the desert development of Neom, the biggest project within Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans for diversifying the oil-dependent economy, according to people familiar with the matter.

Archive: [ https://archive.ph/8DqFE ]

Crown Prince Mohammed intends for Neom, a $1.5 trillion development on the Red Sea coast, to be a showpiece that will transform his country’s economy and serve as a testbed for technologies that could revolutionize daily life. Along with The Line, Neom’s plans include an industrial city, ports and tourism developments. It’s also set to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029 at a mountain resort called Trojena.

The pullback on The Line comes as the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund has yet to approve Neom’s budget for 2024, the people familiar with the matter said. It shows that the financial realities of the trillions of dollars of investment are starting to cause concern at the highest levels of the Saudi government as it tries to fulfill its ambitious Vision 2030 program, the overarching initiative tasked with diversifying the kingdom’s economy.

  • huginn
    46·
    8 months ago

    I’m shocked. The concept-art-only hype project isn’t going to be realized in exactly the exorbitant detail originally promised?

    Shocked. Shocked…

  • realharo@lemm.ee
    16·
    8 months ago

    Sounds like this was the strategy from the very beginning - get tons of attention with crazy unrealistic announcements, then later turn it into a boring old regular city after everyone already recognizes the name.

  • Anderenortsfalsch@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    14·
    8 months ago

    To be fair, the project was the dumbest thing I have ever seen, but it was one of the only big projects that got rid of cars completely and in that one thing it was actually refreshing and futuristic and not the same old. A walkable citiy with a fast train - I hope they keep that, but it will be the first thing to go says my cynical brain.

  • Pringles@lemm.ee
    8·
    8 months ago

    To be honest, I kind of wanted to see this become a reality. I’m not surprised this won’t happen, but the scifi lover in me is disappointed.