Saudi crown prince announces plans for £380bn city run on alternative energy

Ambitious Neom project in Red Sea zone will serve as 'worldwide technology innovation hub' by 2025

Riyadh

Wednesday 25 October 2017 09:48 BST

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Saudi Arabia's crown prince: Country will return to 'moderate, open Islam'

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Saud has announced plans for a new £380 billion city to be built to run entirely on alternative energy and be an innovation hub for the future.

The project, dubbed Neom, will be built on untouched land along the country's Red Sea coastline near Egypt and Jordan.

The ambitious project could lead the way in the use of drones, driverless cars and robotics.

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

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1/1010 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice.

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10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

In March 2015, Yemen’s Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country.

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10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest.

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10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

Members of the Kingdom’s Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012.

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10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as “inciting people against the authorities”.

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10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards.

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10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty.

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10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabia’s clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health.

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10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his ‘confession’. At Dawood’s trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer.

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10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses

Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident.

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The kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, which the crown prince chairs, the Saudi government and global technology firms will help build the city.

Prince Mohammed announced the project at a major investment conference in Riyadh aimed at shining a spotlight on the kingdom's efforts to diversify its revenue streams away from dependence on oil exports.

The Future Investment Initiative conference is being attended by giants in the business world, corporate managers from some of the world's largest firms and senior Saudi officials.

LSE Saudi Arabia academic: Lifting ban on women driving is being used to deflect bad news

Prince Mohammed defended his bold reform plans, including the kingdom's recent decision to lift the ban on women driving, saying: “We were not like this in the past.”

The 32-year-old prince added: “We want to go back to what we were: moderate Islam.”

The heir to the throne said the kingdom will work to defeat extremist ideas and ensure that young Saudis live in harmony with the rest of the world.

“We will eradicate the remnants of extremism very soon. We represent the moderate teachings and principles of Islam.”

He addressed a panel that included business leaders Stephen Schwarzman of US private equity firm Blackstone and Masayoshi Son of Japan's technology conglomerate SoftBank.

The panellists later praised the prince for his “passion, vision and enthusiasm”, but he interjected, saying he is only “one of 20 million people. I am nothing without them”.

AP

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