King
Abdullah's visit to the world's largest private sector
development near Jeddah follows the completion of Emaar
Economic City's initial public offering to which more than
half of the Saudi national population had subscribed. King
Abdullah inspected the progress on the project, which is
billed to usher in a new era of economic prosperity to the
Kingdom.
An
overview of the project was presented to King Abdullah, who
had officially launched KAEC at the headquarters of Saudi
Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), the project's
prime facilitator, in Riyadh on December 20, 2005. Work on
KAEC started the very next day and has now progressed
significantly.
Emaar the
Economic City, a consortium led by global real estate major
Emaar Properties and Saudi investors, is undertaking the
project.
"The visit
of His Majesty highlights the importance he places on the
economic reforms that he has pioneered and confirms his
constant support to projects, which strengthen the Saudi
economy and align it with global economies," said Amr Al-Dabbagh,
SAGIA Governor.
"Projects
like KAEC are aimed at underpinning the new investment
opportunities in the Kingdom and also offer tremendous
employment opportunities in line with the requirements of
modern economies."
"KAEC
builds on the principal thrust areas of the Kingdom's new
economic policy," said Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Chairman, EEC.
"The
project attracts foreign direct investment particularly in
the light and heavy industry, finance and hospitality
sectors; develops private sector further; promotes the
development of local labour force and assures increased
employment; and helps diversification of the economy through
non-oil resource based developments. KAEC is therefore in
line with the national objective of growing and diversifying
the Kingdom's economy."
Nidal
Jamjoom, Chief Executive Officer, EEC, said: "The six
components of KAEC — the world-class seaport, industrial
district, education and healthcare zone, financial island,
resorts and residential area — will power the development of
Saudi Arabia as a global economic powerhouse. When completed
within 36 months, in phases, the project and its components
have the potential to generate 500,000 new jobs for Saudi
nationals."
KAEC has
made rapid progress on site work with the structural steel
work for the presentation centre already executed and
installation of precast walls will be soon completed. Work
is also underway on the project's first boulevard — a 15km
long stretch that features over 3,000 palm trees.
Excavation
work for the first city canal to run through the Red Sea
Village, a component of KAEC, has started. Geotechnical
investigations are being conducted for dwelling units, and
designs for one of the main entry gates, the first Corniche
Park and marina have been completed. The single largest
private sector initiative in the Kingdom, KAEC is a SR100
billion ($26.6 billion) project off the Red Sea Coast
covering a greenfield site of 55 million square metre.
Courtesy:
Khaleej
Times
