Saudi Arabia has scaled back its medium-term ambitions for the desert development of Neom, the biggest project within Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans for diversifying the oil-dependent economy, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Crown Prince Mohammed intends for Neom, a $1.5 trillion development on the Red Sea coast, to be a showpiece that will transform his country’s economy and serve as a testbed for technologies that could revolutionize daily life. Along with The Line, Neom’s plans include an industrial city, ports and tourism developments. It’s also set to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029 at a mountain resort called Trojena.

The pullback on The Line comes as the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund has yet to approve Neom’s budget for 2024, the people familiar with the matter said. It shows that the financial realities of the trillions of dollars of investment are starting to cause concern at the highest levels of the Saudi government as it tries to fulfill its ambitious Vision 2030 program, the overarching initiative tasked with diversifying the kingdom’s economy.

  • Pringles
    81·
    6 months ago

    To be honest, I kind of wanted to see this become a reality. I’m not surprised this won’t happen, but the scifi lover in me is disappointed.

    • Aniki 🌱🌿English
      31·
      6 months ago

      disappointed that a bunch of horrendously corrupt murder fascists don’t get to build their idiotic idea of capitalist-hellscape?

      • Pringles
        21·
        6 months ago

        If you want to put that spin on it, sure, albeit completely besides the point.

        • Aniki 🌱🌿English
          21·
          6 months ago

          Yes I absolutely do and we should continuously remind ourselves that the people we rely on for oil are categorically the worst humans on this planet. Fuck SA. Eat the billionaires.