Man with a plan: Dr Abdulrahman Al Shaikh

Dr Abdulrahman Al Shaikh.
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Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for Town Planning Dr Abdulrahman Al Shaikh discusses the Kingdom’s National Spatial Strategy, the economic cities and offers advice to foreign companies looking to enter the market.

What is KSA’s Spatial Strategy?

The Kingdom is very big, about eight times the size of the UK – it’s almost like a continent. With this vast area and a rapidly increasing population a national spatial strategy is essential or you cannot make all the right strategic decisions to control developments, the population and commercial activities, or direct them to the right places.

So this national strategic plan was approved by royal decree about 15 years ago to create balanced development between regions, and within regions. It suggests which cities should be developed first and which resources devoted where.

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FEATURED COMMENT I will ask Dr. Abdulrahman did he calculate also how many foreign workers will be needed to execute his plans, knowing t   1 Comments Read more comments »

And what is the result of this strategy?

Based on the study, which we spent about ten years doing, the Kingdom was divided into 13 provinces, each with its own capital city and surrounding secondary cities. In each province we encourage industries that will utilise the local characteristics or resources of the area, some areas we promote agriculture, some mining industries and others petrochemicals industries.

Following on from that we encourage establishing related downstream industries to allow the most efficient use of our resources. This is the way it works, but the implementation takes a very long time and we are facing many challenges.

What is the biggest challenge?

The increase in population is a major challenge because we are now almost 26 million people with a population growth of something like 8% per annum. This creates uncontrolled expansions to cities and rapid growth of urban centres.

Do the economic cities fit into the spatial plan?

The economic cities came later and we had to revise the spatial plan to fit them in. One important area of study was the effect these huge economic cities may have on neighbouring areas. We didn’t want to create a vacuum with the new cities pulling everybody out of the market.

This was the main concern of the government and so based on our studies we suggested where the economic cities could be integrated. So there’ll be no gaps or huge differences between them, in fact they’ll help existing cities create more opportunities.

Are these economic cities needed?

Yes, these came with a strategic objective. The economic cities aim to create economic diversification and attract foreign investors and experts. We think it will provide valuable opportunities for securing a variety of modern, technical and commercial industries and help us move away from being an oil based economy. King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is already attracting billions of dollars from outside the Kingdom.

Will all economic cities be built?

Yes. They have been well planned by our foreign investment agencies, there are comprehensive feasibility studies, they have been approved by the higher authorities and the major component of its success is interest from foreign investors. Each city has its own unique character based on local resources. For example, in Jizan they are using aluminium industries as the core and in Hail they are using phosphate and other mines to form the core.