NEOM's ambitious vision: Reshaping Saudi Arabia's future

What future awaits the world's leading oil producers when the demand for this key resource is declining? Saudi Arabia, where oil revenues account for nearly 75% of the budget and 40% of GDP, presented an answer to this challenge in 2016.

The role of the Saudi monarchy in the world of the future is defined by the Saudi Vision 2030 project, also known as Project 2030. Among the ideas included to make the country independent from hydrocarbon extraction, one - the NEOM project - stands out for its visionary scope.

The NEOM project envisages the construction of a futuristic metropolis combining unprecedented ambition with modern technical solutions, energy self-sufficiency, and carbon neutrality.

At a cost of £393 billion (unofficial sources estimate it could be as much as £1.2 trillion), a megacity is being developed on the Gulf of Aqaba that will generate 460,000 new jobs and £38 billion in additional GDP. Ultimately, 9 million Saudis, or up to 25% of the country's current population, could live there.

Recently, in October 2024, after a temporary halt, work resumed on one of the symbols of the NEOM project: Jeddah Tower. This building's construction began in 2013, before the NEOM project was announced.

Jeddah Tower will be the world's tallest building, surpassing the Dubai 828-metre Burj Khalifa. The exact, final height of the new skyscraper is kept secret, but it is known that the building will be at least 1,008 metres tall. This is significantly less than the original plans, which envisioned raising the building to a height of one mile (1,609 metres).

To enable the construction of the giant skyscraper on unstable ground, exceptional foundations were constructed during the work – with piles embedded 200 metres into the ground, supporting a 90-metre concrete slab on which the building is set.

The plan anticipates that it won't be possible to prevent the settlement of the structure weighing nearly a million tonnes, so the skyscraper is designed to settle evenly without leaning to any side. This means that over time, its height – measured from ground level – will decrease.

The second showpiece of the NEOM project is The Line – a linear city that is 169 kilometres long. The city is being constructed as a single, giant building with mirrored facades, enclosing the entire city's space, which will allow for air conditioning and the creation of indoor conditions. The idea slightly resembles experimental enclosed ecosystems like the Biosphere 2 constructed in the 1980s, although it's incomparably larger and doesn't foresee full isolation.

The idea of The Line assumes that the city of the future will not need cars – "the line" will be 200 metres wide and up to 500 metres tall and will consist of two symmetric buildings between which there will be covered space.

The plan assumes that all key services will be available to residents within a 5-minute walk. The record height is also expected to allow for the world's highest population density, reaching 100,000 people per square kilometre.

The city will be divided into three basic levels – the upper level for people and pedestrian movement, below will be an infrastructure level, and at the lowest level will be a transportation system, where a high-speed train will facilitate efficient travel along the entire city.

With access to vast amounts of data, the city will be managed by algorithms, optimising the operation of the giant building to maximise quality of life for its residents. However, the price of this comfort will be a very high level of surveillance (with data-sharing being tied to receiving compensation).

Among the elements of the NEOM project, Trojena stands out. It will be the first open-air ski resort on the Arabian Peninsula and a year-round winter sports centre. This will be possible because it is located in the mountains, at an altitude of 1,700-2,400 metres, where temperatures are significantly lower than in other areas of the Peninsula, dropping even below freezing in winter.

Oxagon also impresses with its ambition. It's the realisation of an idea that over a decade ago billionaire Peter Thiel wanted to implement, unsuccessfully. His concept envisaged the construction of floating islands near French Polynesia, creating a libertarian-themed space not subject to the jurisdiction of any existing countries.

Although Thiel's libertarian "paradise" turned out to be a fantasy, Saudis are realising a similar idea. Oxagon is a city partly floating on water, with separate residential areas, a large port, and a separate, remote industrial hinterland.

Plans involve the intensive use of Oxagon's port, which is expected to become a significant transshipment hub for the region. The floating city's infrastructure will include a water desalination plant, a hydrogen factory, and a scientific centre specialising in oceanography.

Plans also include the construction of a "reverse" community residing in a structure sunken 450 metres into the ground, a large airport with a runway of 3,760 metres (already completed), numerous tourist attractions and shopping centres, as well as an agricultural area, which, thanks to modern solutions, is expected to provide food supplies for the emerging metropolis.

Alongside projects at various stages of completion, the NEOM project can boast one that has already been put into use. It's Sindalah – a luxurious island with a marina, golf course, high-class hotels, and infrastructure allowing wealthy guests to engage in a wide range of activities. In October 2024, the official opening of the facility was confirmed.

The visionary scope and technical advancement of the Saudi project are only one aspect of the NEOM project. The other – much darker – includes the social and environmental costs of its realisation.

Already at this initial stage, the future city's construction has led to the displacement of around 20,000 local residents – mainly members of the Bedouin Al-Howeitat community. Accompanying protests are brutally suppressed, and organisers of resistance are sentenced to death.

The Kafala system, a prevailing form of employment for immigrants in the region, also raises no less controversy, as it requires complete subordination of the worker to the employer in exchange for work and the right to stay. This leads to numerous abuses, resulting, according to human rights defenders, in Saudi investments being based on exploitative labour practices.

Besides formal issues, working conditions are also a problem, as shown in investigative reports by French television Arte and British ITV. According to critics of Saudi megainvestments, up to 21,000 workers have died during the NEOM programme's implementation over just a few years, and the fate of tens of thousands of others remains unknown.

One of the reasons, besides working conditions that violate safety standards, is haste. An example is the land-levelling work for The Line, conducted continuously 24 hours a day.

At the same time, despite the enormity of billion-pound investments, there is no shortage of opinions that the NEOM project is a gigantic misunderstanding, that the schedule pushed by the Saudis is unrealistic, and that individual attention-grabbing structures – like the world's tallest building, Jeddah Tower – mask a failure that the whole project is expected to become.

Will this really be the case? The deadlines for the completion of its various parts are approaching, and in the coming years, we will see how realistic the ambitious assumptions were. The test will come soon – in the winter of 2029, the Trojena winter sports centre, located just 50 kilometres from the Red Sea, will host the X Winter Asian Games.