Neom offices move to project site
Saudi Arabia’s beleaguered megacity project Neom, in the northwest of the kingdom, has moved its headquarters from Riyadh to the project site, near to Neom Bay airport.
The move, championed by much of Saudi Arabia’s client journalism as proof of the project’s “acceleration”, will host a workforce of 450.
Plans are also being put in place to build housing for 30,000 construction workers.
However this is spun, it can not mask the fact that Neom is failing to attract the sort of investment and attention it had promised. Global investors are mostly keeping their distance, terrified of being associated with a prolific human rights abuser like Saudi Arabia, while also being cautious of the economic price. The Saudi economy has been hit by a double-whammy of falling oil prices and the coronavirus crisis.
Meanwhile, the kingdom continues its campaign of harassment, detention and imprisonment of members of the Huwaitat tribe. The Huwaitat, who have lived on the land Neom hopes to built on for centuries, were to be displaced to make way for the project. However, many of them have resisted this, and there is an increasing amount of international support for their cause, further harming Neom’s reputation.
Read more: Huwaitat campaigner in London says she fears being poisoned
