The Wall Street Journal reported on the major obstacles facing the Saudi Crown Prince’s The Line project, one of the major projects in the 2030 plan, which has not moved forward since its launch in 2017. Based on what it described as internal reports, the Journal stated that the Kingdom’s government is “wasting” money on the project, even though there are some serious flaws in the city’s design, and that the government has not moved forward with many of the first phase’s plans because of a crisis in providing the necessary funding at a time when the Kingdom is spending much more than it makes, creating the appearance of an imbalance in the Saudi budget.
It is noteworthy that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohamed bin Slaman (MBS) stated that his government intends to settle 9 million international residents in “The Line,” the future city connected to the NEOM project, which he hopes to see completed. The city will house 9 million people from various countries across a distance of 170 kilometers between mountainous and desert terrain, at a cost of up to 500 billion US dollars.
On the other hand, NEOM executives anticipated that fewer than 200,000 people would live in the first phase of “The Line,” based on reports that have surfaced in recent days.
In spite of this, NEOM is investing heavily in massive infrastructure that will serve millions of people. These projects include the construction of a massive airport, a high-speed train that will travel through a 32-kilometer mountain tunnel, massive water desalination plants, and two gas power plants totaling 800 megawatts that will supply the region with energy from environmentally friendly sources.
One of Ibn Salman’s many wonders and illusions is that the engineers started laying the foundations for the city of “The Line” two years ago, even before the architects developed a construction plan, simply to appease the public and claim that the Saudi Crown Prince was making progress on his project. However, the disaster struck when the architects decided in a hurry that the first phase would be built somewhere else, leaving the initial foundations in place to expose the widespread corruption supported by MBS.
According to the newspaper, MBS also runs the risk of squandering a significant portion of national funds on an unprecedented global building experience; for this reason, experts have all agreed that the project is difficult, if not impossible, to finish.
Visiting professor Madawi Al-Rasheed, a member of the Saudi opposition and the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics and Political Science, stated: “Mohammed bin Salman is gambling by spending a lot of money that could make a tangible jump in the Saudi economy, but he has spent it on advisors and architects from foreign countries.”
The Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning, Faisal Al-Ibrahim, also stated that although the government of the Kingdom has not changed its ambitions for The Line City, the size of construction in its first phase has been scaled back. The decrease in completion rates in the Kingdom is attributed to the Kingdom’s economy, which is growing more quickly than before and is not being overdone, as the government wishes.
Additionally, according to Bloomberg, the Saudi NEOM project intends to sell its bonds for the first time since its founding in riyals. The project was compelled to raise money, even in riyals, in order to continue, possibly as a result of its inability to draw in foreign investors who view it as nothing more than a pipe dream and pure illusion unrelated to the foundations of building cities.
The best proof that MBS is carrying out his project of impoverishing the Kingdom and ruining the lives of its people comes from his insistence on wasting money in the desert in spite of numerous reports from the East and West, regionally and internationally, indicating the project’s failure. Other evidence includes the Kingdom’s high prices, budget deficit, and the reluctance of foreign businesses to work in the Kingdom’s market and invest in Vision 2030.
