By TMO | July 3, 2008
Courtesy The Straits Times/AFP, Linda Lim & Geh Min
MEDINA
(SAUDI ARABIA) - SAUDI Arabia is pouring billions of dollars into Medina, city
of the Prophet Muhammad (s) and the cradle of Islam, to turn the city into a
high-tech bastion.
The so-called Knowledge Economic City (KEC) is the fourth in a series of
projects launched by the oil powerhouse in December 2005, aimed at attracting
foreign investment and bolstering development.
It is being promoted by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority
(Sagia), and financed by the private sector. The KEC is located several
kilometers from the center of Medina and the Mosque of the Prophet, a top
Muslim pilgrimage destination.
Sagia governor Amr al-Dabbagh said the plan to build ‘Economic Cities’ was
inspired by some 3,000 special economic zones that exist worldwide to promote
investment.
‘In our case, we call them ‘Economic Cities’ because they have more
ingredients,’ he said. ‘They are places where people can work, enjoy life and
make money.’
The KEC is the latest in a series of mammoth development schemes in the
kingdom. The first such project, known as the King Abdullah Economic City, is
being built at Rabigh, in Mecca province.
The KEC, a US$8 billion (S$11 billion) project, is being built to promote
knowledge and the sciences.
Among the strategic alliances it has established is one with IT giant
Microsoft. Signed in February, the deal is to set up a Microsoft academy that
will include a library with IT books, trial software and other learning
materials.
A center for Islamic studies is also being planned.
The rich history of Medina was one of the reasons why it was chosen to host
the KEC.
The project’s backers hope that Medina’s rich past will attract Muslim
scientists as well as companies wanting to do business with the Arab and Muslim
world, bolstering development on all fronts.
But there are also question marks over the real aim of these artificial
cities and over their long-term viability.
‘They are into buildings. They are into real estate. Real estate is
something they do well,’ an Asian professor teaching in a Saudi university said
about the promoters of the KEC and other such cities. For him, it is just a
real estate project rather than a bid to develop scientific knowledge or boost
the economy.
‘So they do it in different places under different names,’ he said, asking
not to be named.
The construction drive also coincides with an unprecedented economic boom
generated by colossal oil revenues for Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude oil
exporter.
The country earned US$194 billion in oil income last year, and it is
estimated that combined revenues for this year and next year will amount to
US$700 billion because of the rocketing cost of crude.
But the head of the state-run Sagia insisted that the projects ‘are all
developed by the private sector’.
‘Our role is to iron out any obstacles and ensure that the environment is
pro-business,’ Mr Dabbagh said.
At the core of the ‘Economic Cities’ project is the question of job creation
for Saudis, according to a report by the Saudi British Bank.
Once completed, the KEC is expected to house 130,000 people. By 2020, the
new cities that would have mushroomed in the Saudi desert could be home to 4.8
million people and generate 1.2 million jobs.
Employment generation is a high political and economic priority for the
authorities of the kingdom, which has a population of 23 million.
Creating jobs is a must in order to achieve sustainable development as the
private sector is highly dependent on foreign labor.
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