Posted on 12/20/2005 6:41:17 PM PST by wagglebee
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia unveiled a 26.6-billion-dollar project to build a state-of-the art residential and industrial city, timed with its new membership to the World Trade Organisation. King Abdullah Economic City will be located near the western industrial city of Rabegh on the Red Sea coast, north of the kingdom's second largest city, Jeddah.
An Emaar-led consortium made up of Saudi and Emirati companies, including the Saudi Bin Laden construction company, will be the main investor in the development.
The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), which is in charge of attracting foreign investment to the kingdom, will be project coordinator.
"In what is considered the single largest private sector investment in Saudi Arabia, the announcement ... is a signal of the dawn of a new era of economic prosperity for the citizens of the kingdom," Emaar said on Tuesday.
The project was announced at SAGIA's headquarters in Riyadh in the presence of Saudi King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz and Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, highlighting the significance attached to the project by the Saudi government.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil producer, formally joined the WTO on December 11 and is eager to demonstrate its commitment to political and economic reform and its new openness to foreign investment.
"It is no coincidence that the city is being formally launched as Saudi Arabia has now become a part of the World Trade Organisation," said Amr al-Dabbagh, SAGIA's governor.
"The fact that we were able to move ahead with this project on a fast track basis shows that Saudi Arabia is moving ahead with confidence to transform the economy and build more sustainable prosperity for its citizens."
The project may also be a sign of the change underway in the ultra-conservative kingdom ruled according to sharia (Islamic law).
Saudi Arabia is expected to record a budget surplus of 57 billion dollars in 2005 on the back of surging crude prices, and its economy will grow by 6.5 percent this year, according to ministry of finance forecasts.
The government is under increasing pressure to spread the wealth, create new jobs and provide better education for its 17-million citizens, about half of whom are under 18.
The project is expected to create some 500,000 jobs, Emaar said.
The Saudi government has earmarked a 55 million square metre (590 million square foot) greenfield land and a 35-kilometre (22 mile) shoreline for the project which will include a new port, an industrial park, a financial district, a 3,500-unit residential and hotel complex and even an 18-hole golf course.
There will also be a facility to serve up to half-a-million pilgrims arriving by sea each year on their way to the holy city of Mecca.
The new port will be "similar in size to the world's top 10 ports, such as Rotterdam, that would allow even the world's largest super vessels to drop anchor," Emaar said.
Emaar, majority owned by the Dubai government, is one of the world's largest property developers, boasting a 7.7-billion-dollar asset base.
It has more than 15 major projects underway in Dubai, including what is projected to be the world's tallest skyscraper, and has announced over the past four months projects worth about 10 billion dollars in Egypt and Syria.
It's simple. It's being built a liberal infested city. That should answer your question.
Real tomato ketchup, Eddie.
Nuthin but the best.
:)
$26B? Chump Change.
A stately pleasure dome decree...
Gee, I thought they were going to help there Pali brothers for once....
Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
Damn, sounds like Las Vegas...
What amuses me is that it appeared next to Mark Steyn's column in the Chicago Sun-Times. So the Saudis were actually supporting a person who has repeatedly called for the overthrow of their government!
D
Wonder if they would be interested in a good deal for New Orleans?
The war theme in the poem is interesting, don't you think?
The line up of beggars asking the Saudi fag-king for a hand out was getting too long in the old city. Time to build a new one. What is there in a Saudi city anyways? A mosk, row housing, and a few palaces, and a BMW car dealership.
will they have specially marked lanes for suicide truck bombers?
We spent many a weekend at Rabegh. There wasn't a permanent structure within 20 miles of the place, nothing but one great big beach. We'd often wondered what kind of world class resort complex the Israelis could build there. It'll be a great time there, except there won't be any bars. Even the rich Saudis wouldn't go there because of that. They'd never have to worry about cold snaps or rainy spells. I think I'll give it a miss. Give me Disney World any old day.
union labor ?:o)
Can you imagine a giant Lake Tahoe built by General Electric? Then the Israelis could get in to build the resorts.
"In what is considered the single largest private sector investment in Saudi Arabia, the announcement ... is a signal of the dawn of a new era of economic prosperity for the citizens of the kingdom," Emaar said on Tuesday.
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But is it really 'private'? Sounds more to me like 'socialist'... This reporter didn't bother to investigate where the money was coming from, although it did say a firm that would be doing a lot of the construction was 'majority owned by the Dubai government'.
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