Top secret sources quoted an adviser to the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MBS) as saying that the Saudi de-facto ruler admitted in a private meeting that his megacity projects such as NEOM and The Line will never see the light.
These megacity projects only aim to fool the Saudi people in light of the growing economic crisis, the sources added. NEOM’s top foreign employees affirmed that they have received imaginary salaries and compensation for doing nothing but coming up with ideas and proposals.
As more of them arrived, foreign employees began describing their experiences with a joke: When you start at NEOM, you bring two buckets. The first is to hold all the gold you’ll accumulate, and with so many living expenses taken care of, it will soon grow heavy. The second bucket is for all the shit you take. When that bucket is full, you pick up your bucket of gold and leave. It often doesn’t take long; many people NEOM hires last less than a year.
Alcohol would be allowed in NEOM
Joseph Bradley, CEO of NEOM’s Tech and Digital Holding Company, could not confirm alcohol would be allowed under the new law, but he told AFP that “everyone understands” the need to attract foreign talent and tourists.
“What we get asked a lot is this whole notion around is there going to be alcohol, what are you going to do around this?” he said in an interview at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh.
It is worth mentioning that NEOM offered tax-free salaries of $700,000 to $900,000 for some senior expatriates, more than 20 times the income of the average Saudi, and a broad range of other perks.
MBS has long been criticised over his huge spending on unreal megacities, saying that architecture is often drawn to authoritarian regimes, as well, for no other reason than their ability to do things by decree, citing Neom mega-project as an example.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is pushing ahead with plans to reduce its stakes in some of the kingdom’s biggest companies and raise billions of dollars for new investments, Bloomberg revealed on Friday.
People familiar with the matter affirmed to the paper that the Public Investment Fund (PIF) has recently been holding informal talks with investment banks about paring its holdings in several state-backed firms that trade on the local stock exchange.
The PIF is also considering plans to potentially list more state-owned assets, the sources added.
The PIF also plans to invest $64 billion locally a year until 2024 and help bankroll ambitious projects, including Neom — a $500 billion city intended to attract new industries.
