If you were playing Sim City, you’d want to go about building your metropolis the same
way the Saudi’s have with King Abdullah Economic City.
And just like other great leaders of men, you’d probably name it after yourself too,
which is exactly what King Abdullah did.
You’d also focus on job-creating infrastructure and a dream university to attract the best
and brightest.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s dominant oil producer, and is a country that knows how
to play the game.
While its flashier neighbors like Abu Dhabi and Dubai get all the publicity for their
megaprojects, the Kingdom is embarking on a far more ambitious project that’s focused
squarely on creating the most cohesive, well-planned city in the Arab world.
The $100 billion enterprise on the coast of the Red Sea is about an hour’s drive north
of Jeddah, the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, and plans to expand into an area about
the size of Washington DC.
That location is no coincidence, says Fahd Al Rasheed, the man who’s in charge of growing
King Abdullah Economic City - which we’re going to shorten to just its initials, KAEC
- “you’re talking about 24 percent of global trade going through the Red Sea, and
this is a trend that’s never been addressed by a Red Sea port.”
That’s why KAEC’s port is going to be massive, with an annual capacity of over ten
million shipping containers, which would make it one of the busiest ports in the world.
So cargo is KAEC’s first major transportation hub.
The second is Haramain station, one of four stops on Saudi Arabia’s planned high speed
rail network that will connect the new megacity to Jeddah, Makkah, and Madinah.
This will bring thousands of visitors to KAEC right from it’s inception, with officials
hoping that some will naturally take jobs and stay there, fueling its expansion.
At first, the whole plan struggled to gain much traction with investors, “but,” says
Al Rasheed, “then we reoriented ourselves towards building that demand, creating that
support and it’s completely shifted.
Now we have captive demand — all our apartments are full and we have waiting lists for hundreds
of people, literally.”
Part of that shift focused on KAEC’s Industrial Valley which is centered on a large petrochemical
plant and has more than 70 companies lining up to set up bases there.
And then there’s the cornerstone of any thriving city: a great university.
Enter, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology - which began instruction in
2009 with a staggering $20 billion endowment, making it the third best-funded university
in the world behind Harvard and Yale.
This capital injection has allowed it to lift off like a rocket in its first five years.
It’s recruited some of the best talent from over 60 countries around the world--scientists
who’ve carried the school to an eye-opening 99.9% research record score.
The research teams at King Tech are advancing many important fields like solar cell technology
and cancer therapy.
It teaches in English and is the first mixed-gender university in the Kingdom.
Plus, with just 1200 postgraduates on an 8,900 acre campus, there’s plenty of room to expand
in every direction.
With forty percent of Saudi Arabia’s citizens under 15 years old, the plan is for the megacity
- by itself - to create upwards of a million jobs for all of those young people to grow
into.
In the end, it may be true that Saudi Arabia would be a bone-dry desert wasteland without
it’s exploitation of the vast fields of black gold underneath it, but at least - in
the twilight of his life - King Abdullah is doing all he can to set his people - and the
rest of the world - on a slightly better path than the one they were on when he took over
just nine years ago in 2005.
And if that’s his legacy, he deserves to have a city named after him.