Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince plans to build a carbon emissions-free industrial city “floating” on the Red Sea as part of his Neom mega-project
Neom didn’t say how much the city would cost, or how the complex would be engineered to float.
The project, dubbed “Oxagon”, will feature a port and a logistics hub, the company developing Neom said in a news release. It will be a “comprehensive cognitive city” focused on robotics and artificial intelligence, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
Announced in 2017, Neom is the crown jewel of Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s program to overhaul the economy of the world’s largest oil exporter. His plan to turn the remote region on the kingdom’s northwest Red Sea coast into a robot-driven tech hub encapsulates the major elements of his so-called “Vision 2030” to diversify away from crude, loosen social restrictions and boost investment.
But the project has stirred controversy, including skepticism about its feasibility after some previous efforts to build economic and financial free zones struggled to take off. A relocation process for local residents devolved into violence and arrests.
When Prince Mohammed announced Neom, it was originally framed as a $500 billion investment. Foreign firms have been slow to commit, but some have signed deals including Oracle Corp., Air Products and Huawei Digital Power.
In January, Neom detailed plans to build a car-free 170-kilometre (105-mile) linear city called “The Line” as its centrepiece, however that project’s complexity means it could take years to get off the ground.
The industrial city is one of several other zones planned in other areas of Neom and the next to be announced after The Line.
It will be located in the southwest corner of the region of Neom, and will include a previously-announced $5bn green hydrogen plant that’s a joint venture between Acwa Power, Air Products and Neom, currently under construction.
Nadhmi Al-Nasr, CEO of Neom, said: “Through OXAGON, there will be a fundamental shift in how the world views manufacturing centres. What encourages us is to see the enthusiasm of a number of our partners who have shown eagerness to start their projects in OXAGON.
“These pioneers of change will establish factories, developed with the latest technologies in artificial intelligence, to achieve a significant leap for this era into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As with The Line, Oxagon will be a comprehensive cognitive city that provides exceptional livability for its residents.
Planners want the city to be 100 percent powered by renewable energy and to focus on seven industries, Neom said in the news release: sustainable energy, autonomous mobility, water innovation, sustainable food production, health and wellbeing and technology and digital manufacturing and “modern methods of construction”.
A release said Oxagon would welcome its first manufacturing tenants at the beginning of 2022.
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