Saudi Arabia chases UK tech firms to partner on $500bn Neom City

Saudi Arabia chases UK tech firms to partner on $500bn Neom City

Saudi Arabia has called on UK companies to partner and invest in its multi-billion dollar smart cities as part of the kingdom's transformation drive.

"The drive behind all these opportunities is that smart cities will help Saudi Arabia,“ Moath Alzahrani, smart cities domain lead at the kingdom's National Digital Transformation Unit told delegates at London's Tech Week event.

"[Smart cities] will create jobs in the public and private sector, increase non-oil revenues and enhance liveability and sustainability,“ said Alzahrani.

Saudi Arabia, which is currently building 16 smart cities, has its eye on being the world's most connected and digitised nation by 2030 as part of its ambitious economic diversification drive.

VIDEO

According to Faisal Al-Sadhan, programme manager for Technology Investment at Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the government has already invested