Nadhmi al-Nasr, the longtime chief executive of the $500bn Saudi development project Neom launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has departed,

Neom CEO departs as Saudi Arabia scales back mega-projects

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2024-11-14 09:00:04

Nadhmi al-Nasr, the longtime chief executive of the $500bn Saudi development project Neom launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has departed, according to a Neom statement issued on Tuesday that did not give a reason for the departure.

Prince Mohammed has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into development projects through the kingdom’s PIF sovereign wealth fund.

The Red Sea mega-project, an urban and industrial development nearly the size of Belgium due to house nearly 9 million people, is central to the prince’s Vision 2030 plan, which aims to diversify the economy away from oil.

But some of the schemes have had to be scaled back due to rising costs, including the Line, a futuristic city between mirrored walls extending 170km (106 miles) into the desert within Neom.

Reuters reported in May that the $925bn PIF was weighing a reorganisation, aiming to sharpen its focus on investments that have a higher chance of success. Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, is still heavily reliant on hydrocarbon revenues, and low oil prices and production have dented state coffers.

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