10 companies shortlisted for $40bn Saudi project

Ten companies have been shortlisted for the construction of a new $40 billion economic city in Saudi Arabia.

Modon, the kingdom’s industrial development agency, has shortlisted 10 developers for Sudair City, which will be the largest development of its type in the country.

It is one of a number of economic cities planned which also include King Abdullah Economic City, Knowledge Economic City in Medina, Prince Abdulaziz bin Mousaed Economic City in Hail and the Jazan Economic City, south of Jeddah.

The developers in the frame for the Sudair contract will be invited to submit their proposals within the next eight weeks, UAE daily The National reported on Sunday.

The successful developer will then be responsible for hiring sub-developers for the project, which will be spread across a 258 million square metre site north of Riyadh.

Modon initially invited about 60 companies to bid for the project.

“We did a pre-qualification of all companies that expressed an interest and will issue a request for proposal (RFP) to 10 companies within the next eight weeks,” Tawfig al Rabiah, the director general of Modon, told the paper.

Rabiah added that Sudair City was progressing according to plan despite the global economic crisis, with a contractor hired in November to build electricity networks and substations for the first phase of the project.