*RIYADH: Saudi King Salman has arrived for a holiday in NEOM, astill-undeveloped mega city that the crown prince has pledged to build fromscratch in the kingdom’s remote northwest, state media said Monday.*
NEOM appears an unusual holiday destination for the 82-year-old monarch,who is known to spend his annual summer vacation in exotic palaces inlocations such as Morocco.
The king “has arrived in NEOM, where he will spend some time in rest andrecreation”, the official Saudi Press Agency said in a brief statement.
It was unclear where the king would stay in the still unbuilt area thatremains off limits to civilians.
NEOM, announced with much fanfare last October by Crown Prince Mohammed binSalman, is part of a series of multi-billion-dollar projects as the kingdomseeks to diversify its oil-reliant economy.
The Saudi government says NEOM — billed as a regional silicon valley — willdraw investments worth $500 billion from the kingdom’s vast PublicInvestment Fund, as well as local and international investors.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, has dazzled investors with ahost of hi-tech “giga projects”, but sceptics question their viability asthe kingdom scrambles to diversify its economy in an era of cheaper oil.
The projects, unprecedented in their scale and ambition, could createfunding pressures as the government faces a yawning budget deficit andgrowth in the kingdom’s non-oil economy remains slow, analysts say.
Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia replaced the first CEO of NEOM, KlausKleinfeld, less than a year after the unveiling of the venture.
Nadhmi al-Nasr, a member of NEOM’s founding board and a veteran of stateoil giant Saudi Aramco, will take over from Kleinfeld from August 1, thegovernment said. – APP/AFP