Word: al-dabbagh
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...al-Dabbagh has no doubt that if he builds it, they will come. The governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) is one of the forces behind King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), a $27 billion development rising out of the desert 62 miles (100 km) north of Jeddah, and he can already envision the arrival of its first residents. "It won't be long before it starts taking shape," he says...
...Al-Dabbagh and his backers insist they're not trying to out-Dubai Dubai--or anybody else--and that the new cities are meant to solve pressing economic and demographic problems: with 60% of its population under the age of 25, Saudi Arabia needs to create millions of jobs and homes for young people who will come of age in the next five years. This "youth bulge" will create a demand for 6 million residential units in the next 12 years; that's a million more units than were built in the past 60 years. "When you have demand...
...foreign-owned and will probably generate several downstream businesses. The ownership is crucial; in the past, the only way foreign companies could operate in the kingdom was through joint ventures and local agents--many of whom brought no skills and little capital to the partnership. With that barrier gone, al-Dabbagh hopes investors will pour in: he expects the new cities to generate more than $100 billion in foreign investment. Saudi businesses may kick in two or three times as much...
...Al-Dabbagh is working to remove other barriers as well and crack the Top 10 on competitiveness lists prepared by the World Economic Forum and the World Bank. Since 2005, SAGIA has been pressing the notoriously sclerotic government bureaucracy to become more investor-friendly, simplify procedures and cut back on paperwork. Dahlia Khalifa, an economist on the World Bank team that produces the Doing Business report, credits Saudi Arabia with "consistent reforms over the past three years...
...Al-Dabbagh and his backers insist they're not trying to out-build Dubai, or anybody else, and that the new cities are meant to solve pressing economic and demographic problems: Saudi Arabia has a massive housing scarcity and a huge population of young people that will come of age in the next five years. Fahd al-Rasheed, CEO of the KAEC project, points out that Saudi Arabia needs to build 6 million residential units in the next 12 years; and that's compared to the 5 million units it has built over the past six decades. In addition...