(From left to right) Huta Marine Managing Director Michael Wubbens, Managing Director and CEO of Emaar Economic City Fahd A. Al-Rasheed, German Consul General Rolf Theodor Schuster and Manager and Board Member of the Saudi German Business Group Farah Spencer. — SG photo by Roberta Fedele Roberta Fedele Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH – The development strategy of King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and finding ways to ensure the city plays a role in the Kingdom's socioeconomic development was the theme of a lecture presented by the managing director and CEO of Emaar Economic City during a recent business breakfast meeting at Jeddah Hilton. Organized by Chairman of the Saudi German Business Group Khaled Juffali and German Consul General Rolf Theodor Schuster in cooperation with Manager and Board Member of SGBG Farah Spencer, the meeting helped the group members learn more about the objectives and strategies behind the creation of KAEC. The members also had a chance to interact with Fahad Al-Rasheed, who was Deputy Governor and CFO of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) between 2005 and 2008 and named Young Global Leader at the 2011 World Economic Forum. Al-Rasheed leads today a company established in 2006 for the purpose of planning and developing King Abdullah Economic City that was launched in December 2005 by King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and is located 90 km north of Jeddah on the Red Sea Coast. Over the past few years he witnessed and contributed with his flexible and customer-oriented approach to the gradual flourishing of KAEC. Al-Rasheed added: “Our main strategy consists in attracting business, creating jobs and providing services in order to bring to life a city that shouldn't just represent a commercial or industrial hub but a place where people would like to live with clean streets, affordable houses, good educational and healthcare systems and leisure activities. “Thanks to the flexibility of our business model, we were able so far to attract 40 important local and international firms such as Saudi Airlines, Pfizer, Sanofi, Mars, Total and over 40 anchor tenants.” KAEC's master plan comprises industrial, commercial and residential zones and focuses on four key sectors to positively impact the national economy: logistics, industry, housing and services. Al-Rasheed said: “One of the Kingdom's difficulties that we are trying to address concerns, for instance, the Saudi seaports. “Despite being located on the Red Sea where most of the trade between East and West flows, Saudi Arabia doesn't have a port system capable to deal with the 15 percent annual growth in Red Sea traffic. “To face this problem, we are building a port designed to be one of the 10 largest ports in the world with an estimated capacity of 20 million containers annually. “The port is already growing at an incredible rate and we will have the first phase fully operational by the end of 2013.” Al-Rasheed said the success of KAEC will also depend on its capacity to support the national economy, absorbing part of the increasing housing demand and offering employment to a young Saudi population that will need 5 million new jobs by the end of 2020. Another major challenge will be the transformation of KAEC into a new industrial base for the Kingdom that captures today only 2 percent of the global energy-related market despite holding a quarter of the global oil reserves. Al-Rasheed said: “If we address only 10 percent of the logistical, infrastructural and industrial markets we will be able to build every corner of KAEC in the next 15 years. “To attract people, KAEC can also count on the fact that Saudi Arabia is still the 17th top country in the world in terms of numbers of visitors annually because of Haj and Umrah, not to mention the advantages in developing tourism and employment due to the new Haramain high-speed railway governmental project that will be completed in 2013 and will connect KAEC to Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah.” Al-Rasheed also discussed other major government investments in KAEC, such as the commitment to provide power and gas to the city. To find out more about KAEC, please visit www.kaec.net.
