JEDDAH, 11 April 2007 — A Saudi-French meeting on the development of architecture and city mapping will be held at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) on April 24, amid the Kingdom’s thrust to establish six economic cities costing over SR300 billion.
The French Consulate, the French Agency for International Business Development, the Saudi Architects Association and the French Business Delegation has organized the meeting. Jeddah Municipality will also participate in the event, together with the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), JCCI and the Saudi French Bank.
The meeting will shed light on the French experience in the field of architecture and city planning.
The Kingdom is eager to take advantage of international experience in order to ensure that the cities are of a high quality. The cities are being developed with an aim of developing alternative means of revenue for the Kingdom and thus decreasing the Kingdom’s dependency on oil.
The meeting will include presentations about the Prince Abdullah ibn Masaed Economic City and the Economic Knowledge City in Madinah. SAGIA will also deliver a presentation on the Kingdom’s new economic cities. Officials participating in the meeting will also visit the King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh.
Chairman of the JCCI Saleh Al-Turki said that the timing of the meeting is important. There are 420 projects that are to be completed in 2012 with total investments exceeding trillions of riyals.A study conducted by SAMBA has shown that the property sector is expected to grow to SR484 billion by 2010.
SAGIA also plans to make the Kingdom an attractive environment for investments to make it one of the top 10 investment countries by 2010. Saudi Arabia was ranked 38 last year.