Saudi Arabia has accelerated its developmental stage by allocating a staggering $44 billion dollar budget specifically for their transport, hydro, telecommunications, agriculture and other fundamental infrastructure such as numerous railway projects that are still in the pipeline.
Their investments into these projects has a significant kickback in to the economy as the country’s construction sector makes a significant contribution of about approximately 8 % of Saudi’ net GDP which renders the Saudi construction sector as biggest construction economic contributor in the region due to the 33 % of investments that pour in via FDIs as approximately 67 % of the investments are injected directly by the Saudi government.
The current large-scale projects in the region spanned over the next decade or so is expected to breach the set $800 billion benchmark and although most of these projects are large-scale and considered as ‘megaprojects’ from any perspective, some are truly awe inspiring. Even the Jabal Omar Development worth more than 5 billion dollars associated with the expansion of Mecca’s Grand Mosque is not just about ‘renovating’, the project will involve rehabilitation of more than 2 million square meters of land in the surrounding vicinity as 38 new towers will be constructed and these towers will be hotels that will be capable of accommodating millions of pilgrims annually.
RIYADH – AUGUST 21: Aerial view of Riyadh downtown on August 21, 2016 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Based on feedback from the developers of these 38 towers, they will be managed by close to 30 different companies just to give them a unique outlook. The projects construction phase is officially over and currently it’s all about establishing proper logistics as close to 14,000 new hotel rooms have been added. Apart from the ‘religious based tourism angle’ the King Abdullah Port expansion worth around 2 billion dollars will present itself as the country’s latest addition to its ‘port portfolio’ only this port will be located on the west coast in the Economic City of King Abdullah. The expansion is set to bring the port up to par with some of the busiest trans-shipment hubs in the region.
The Jubail II project set to be completed by 2024 and the bright neon from tower crane signage has been glowing constantly for nearly 2 decades now. This project consists of approximately 100 industrial plants ranging from steel and synthetic based industrial productions that would be interconnected by miles and miles roads and railways and the zone will also house an oil refinery that will be capable of producing more than 300,000 oil barrels each day. From a security perspective, the Northern Border Security Project worth more than a billion dollars will involve the construction of a 965km wall that is state of the art along Saudi’s border with Iraq and Yemen.
The wall will be equipped with alarm systems and underground vibration sensors and trapped with 40 watchtowers that are fitted with cameras that are night vision capability and radar. The reason that the Saudi’s are able to do all this at once is due to the sovereign funds that have been growing over decades and the region had been too preoccupied with unrest up to now, the stability they are enjoying at the moment has also been seen as an opportunity to bring the region forward from its chaotic past.