Capital Economy, Business and Finance
The man in charge of Saudi Arabia’s colossal effort to draw people and money to a new city in its arid northwest has been sacked. Nadhmi al-Nasr, tasked in 2017 with building a pair of 170-kilometre long skyscrapers in a line across the desert (the design has since shrunk to more like 2 kilometres), left the project last week after damaging reports about his abrasive management style and even more ominous developments for the Saudi economy. The projected cost of Neom – the centrepiece of a cluster of megaprojects including a seaside resort for superyachts and a refrigerated ski mountain – has soared since its inception from $500 billion to $2 trillion. But instead of attracting foreign investment it has suffered from a steady drain on Saudi cash reserves, which even the partly privatised Aramco oil giant hasn’t been able to replenish. Which just goes to show that Neom’s premise – that the kingdom needed to diversify away from oil – was sound.
