Saudi Arabia's Neom — the kingdom's $500 billion city of the future — will have millions of residents by 2030, the project’s head of tourism has said.
People are expected to begin arriving in 2024.
Andrew McEvoy told The National he expected two million “Neomians” to call the city their home by within the next decade.
Mr McEvoy made his comments on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market, currently being held in Dubai’s World Trade Centre.
Alcohol is definitely not off the table. We need to be competitive, and to do that, we have to match what competing destinations are offering
Andrew McEvoy,
head of tourism, Neom
“From 2024 you will see a lot of movement as our first tourism assets begin to open,” Mr McEvoy said.
“Work is already under way and the tourism projects will start to roll out from then.”
Neom will be home to a number of tourist attractions, including the Trojena mountain destination.
Expected to open in 2026, it will have a ski slope, mountain biking and facilities for watersports. It will also feature an interactive nature reserve.
Neom has been designed as a smart city, which will be powered by clean energy.
It has attracted attention worldwide owing to previously released plans that include flying taxis, classes taught by holographic teachers and an artificial moon, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Mr McEvoy said Neom would be treated as its own state, separate from the rules that govern the rest of Saudi Arabia. This will make it more appealing to people considering relocating there, as well as tourists, he said.
“It’s an appealing destination to a lot of people because it’s a chance to help create a new country almost completely from scratch,” he said.
“It’s fantastic career motivation and there is the backing from the Public Investment Fund to make sure it happens.
“Neom will be treated as a country within a country, with its own economic zone and its own authority. We need to make sure its laws and regulations match the ambitions of those we are trying to attract to work and live here.”
He also said people living there would not be referred as Saudis but would be called by the title “Neomians”.
“We have got about 2,000 Neomians living there already along with about 10,000 construction workers,” Mr McEvoy said.
“A lot of the people coming here to live and work will be experts in the fields of energy, water and health — we’re already attracting a lot of great people.”
Selling alcohol not ruled out
He also refused to rule out the sale of alcohol to try and entice people from other countries to come for work or visits.
“Alcohol is definitely not off the table,” he said.
“We need to be competitive, and to do that, we have to match what competing destinations are offering.”
The project is also on target to be car-free by 2030, he said.
“The city is being built to be completely car-free but I think there will be a slight period of transition,” Mr McEvoy said.
“A lot of the mobility options of the future are out there already, like electric hybrids, and we’re experimenting with things like flying taxis.
“This is about providing the tourism of tomorrow.”
Sustainability is also an important focus for the project. This is being driven by young people who have a more invested role in fighting climate change than previous generations, Mr McEvoy said.
“The most powerful force we have behind this is a new generation of young Saudis who are passionately embracing a new future and see Neom as a beacon of that future.”
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
How Alia's experiment will help humans get to Mars
Alia’s winning experiment examined how genes might change under the stresses caused by being in space, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.
Her samples were placed in a machine on board the International Space Station. called a miniPCR thermal cycler, which can copy DNA multiple times.
After the samples were examined on return to Earth, scientists were able to successfully detect changes caused by being in space in the way DNA transmits instructions through proteins and other molecules in living organisms.
Although Alia’s samples were taken from nematode worms, the results have much bigger long term applications, especially for human space flight and long term missions, such as to Mars.
It also means that the first DNA experiments using human genomes can now be carried out on the ISS.
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dual%20electric%20motors%20with%20102kW%20battery%20pack%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E570hp%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20890Nm%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERange%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Up%20to%20428km%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh1%2C700%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
