Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Member of the Council of Ministers, and Envoy for Climate Affairs Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir has said that the smart city "NEOM" will represent a new model for sustainable and environmentally friendly urban design. Al-Jubeir stressed during a panel discussion entitled "The Evolution of Urban Life" at the World Economic Forum (WEF) today that "The Line" project will transfer the concept of smart cities and urban planning to another dimension, and that the "NEOM" project is a step towards building an environmentally friendly and sustainable city with a high quality of life, and almost traffic-free movement. Meanwhile, a dialogue session themed "Reorganizing Value Chains" saw the participation of the Minister of Investment, Eng. Khalid Al-Falih, during which he explained the goals that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's recently launched National Initiative for Global Supply Chains will achieve, and how to benefit from the Kingdom's resources, infrastructure, and geographical location to enhance the flexibility of local and global supply chains. Al-Falih said: "The Kingdom aims, by launching the National Initiative for Global Supply Chains, to enhance our flexibility, and to enable the Kingdom to become a global hub by taking advantage of our strengths." In a panel discussion entitled "Industry and the World of Metaverse", Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha said: "The current two-dimensional world we live in today does not keep pace with the goals of the 21st century." He added: "I am a strong supporter of the metaverse, which will lead the next wave of experiments by clients, enterprises, and the industrial sector. We will bring together academics, innovators, and policymakers in an experimental environment to ensure they work in a safe environment for innovation." On the Kingdom's economy, the Minister of Economy and Planning, Faisal Al-Ibrahim, confirmed during the WEF that the Kingdom is in a good position to surpass the expected growth levels for the year 2023. He said, "The Kingdom today is an example of global growth. We achieved the fastest growth among the G20 countries last year, and if we look closely at the GDP, which grew by 8.5%, we will see that our non-oil activities and the economy of our private sector have reached very high growth rates.". Minister Al-Ibrahim also spoke in a panel discussion on global tax reform, where he said: "Since the announcement of the Saudi Vision 2030, we have focused on diversifying our sources of income away from traditional sources, to create sustainable revenues in the long term, and diversify our sources of economic growth as well." In addition to the dialogue sessions, the Ministry of Economy and Planning announced its cooperation with UpLink, WEF's open innovation platform, to launch an innovation challenge designed to enhance food security in arid regions. This cooperation comes as part of the Kingdom's efforts to develop innovative solutions to the most important challenges facing the world, including technical solutions to achieve food security.
