Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed succeeded in bringing together six ministers — finance, labor, higher education, planning, water and electricity and transport — in addition to the governors of the Saudi General Investment Authority (SAGIA) and the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT). The objective was to discuss an ambitious project for a science and technology complex. The complex would include featuring a university with 28 colleges, a cultural city highlighting the religious and cultural importance of Makkah, a media city, various specialized bodies caring for the gifted, research centers, housing for a quarter of a million people plus a railway line linking them all.
This is building an entire new city from scratch and we remember Jubail and Yanbu which were built from scratch to become the Kingdom’s industrial hub. The idea is a good one in the sense that it would help solve many of our problems relating to unemployment, housing and new investment. For such a colossal undertaking to become reality, a colossal budget of SR30 billion is needed.
In their discussions, the ministers dealt in depth with all aspects of the project. Their reactions can be divided into four groups: those who supported, those who objected, those who raised questions and those who remained silent. The supporters were the minister of higher education and the GOTEVOT governor and the opponents the ministries of finance and labor, the skeptical the ministries of water and electricity and transport and the silent the minister of planning and the SAGIA governor.
The minister of labor gave a light answer when expressing his opposition, saying the project was too good to be true. Applying the language of figures, the minister of finance called for a complete revision of the idea and for detailed studies to determine the feasibility before going any further. The minister of planning was neither for nor against the idea; he neither praised nor criticized the project or even said whether his ministry was involved in the planning.
Such projects normally reflect the state’s general policy on education, science and technology. It is also strange to note a silence from the SAGIA governor since the project would serve domestic as well as international needs, one of SAGIA’s main objectives.
All major projects begin as ideas. The ideas may sometimes seem fancy or unimaginable but definitely this kind of projects are not impossible to carry out. Science and technology cities are now a reality in a wide range of countries — Australia, Spain, Ireland and Malaysia, for example.
Instead of following this lead, we continue to put our money into certain worthless investments, selling and buying huge expanses of barren land. Our ministers and investors must free their mentality from the influence of the real estate market and embark on ambitious and useful projects.
