Futuristic Neom City project to get Pakistan workforce

Pakistan's Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said PTI government will provide labour to Saudi Arabia for its futuristic Neom City project.  In a recent interview to Khaleej Times, he said that Saudi Arabia is developing two new cities and the situation would encourage Pakistani workforce to be accommodated in diverse jobs at multi-billion-dollar project.

"We will provide workforce to Saudi Arabia to develop new proposed cities," Chaudhry said.

Last year, Saudi Arabia announced plan to construct $500 billion futuristic Neom City spanning over 10,000 square miles of urban development by 2025. The construction of phase one will start in the first quarter of 2019 and complete in 2020, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

"We will explore every opportunity to create job opportunities for Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia and discuss this with Saudi Crown Prince during his visit to Pakistan," the information minister said.

Neom City project is part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ambitious plan to diversify Saudi economy by improving non-oil revenues and foreign investment in the country. In an interview to Bloomberg in October, Prince Mohammed termed the first phase of multi-billion project as the Neom Riveria.

The Saudi Press Agency reported that a number of facilities to be opened at Neom by the end of this year. The project, to be financed by Saudi government, its sovereign wealth fund and local and international investors, will also include a private airport that will be used for commercial flights by year-end.

-  muzaffarrizvi@khaleejtimes.com