Neom CEO departs as Saudi Arabia scales back mega-projects | Saudi Arabia

Nadhmi al-Nasr, the longtime chief govt of the $500bn Saudi improvement venture Neom launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has departed, in response to a Neom assertion issued on Tuesday that didn’t give a cause for the departure.

Prince Mohammed has poured tons of of billions of {dollars} into improvement initiatives by the dominion’s PIF sovereign wealth fund.

The Crimson Sea mega-project, an city and industrial improvement almost the dimensions of Belgium as a result of home almost 9 million individuals, is central to the prince’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 plan, which goals to diversify the economic system away from oil.

However among the schemes have needed to be scaled again as a result of rising prices, together with the Line, a futuristic metropolis between mirrored partitions extending 170km (106 miles) into the desert inside Neom.

Reuters reported in Might that the $925bn PIF was weighing a reorganisation, aiming to sharpen its deal with investments which have a better likelihood of success. Saudi Arabia, the world’s prime oil exporter, continues to be closely reliant on hydrocarbon revenues, and low oil costs and manufacturing have dented state coffers.

Aiman al-Mudaifer was named as performing CEO of Neom. He has been the pinnacle of the Native Actual Property Division at PIF since 2018 and has a deep understanding of Neom and its initiatives, Neom’s assertion mentioned.

“As Neom enters a brand new section of supply, this new management will guarantee operational continuity, agility and effectivity to match the general imaginative and prescient and aims of the venture,” the press launch reads.

In his function at PIF, Mudaifer oversees all native actual property investments and infrastructure initiatives, and he’s a board member of a number of distinguished corporations within the kingdom.