RIYADH, 6 November 2007 — Dr. Hashim Yamani, minister of Commerce and Industry and chairman of the Saudi Organization for Industrial Estate and Technology Zones (SOIETZ), signed yesterday an SR2 billion contract with Industrial Cities Development and Operation Company Ltd. (ICDOC) in the Kingdom for the management of water services in three industrial cities.
The constructional and operational cost of these contracts exceeds SR2 billion during their 30-year contract life span. The projects are considered unique as they provide comprehensive water services, while meeting all the environmental and water needs of the industrial cities through ROT (rehabilitate, operate and transfer) contracts.
After the signing ceremony, Yamani said the projects were in line with SOIETZ’s strategy to privatize water services within the industrial cities to become integrated entities, adding that similar contracts for industrial cities in Riyadh 2nd Industrial City, Jeddah 1st Industrial City and Qassim 1st Industrial City had been signed earlier. SOIETZ is currently revamping operations, rehabilitating the current cities and contracting operators in the hope of operating and modernizing all these cities to bring them on a par with urbanized industrial cities.
Earlier, Dr. Tawfig Alrabiah, director general of SOIETZ, said “the signing of the water services privatization contracts is part of a master plan we are implementing at SOIETZ to upgrade services within industrial cities in the hope of overcoming obstacles faced by industrialists and creating model industrial zones.”
He said that “with today’s signing we have embarked on a major regional undertaking for the future of our nation, and as such I am pleased to witness the gradual evolution of our industrial cities as they develop their infrastructure to meet the growing needs of local industries.”
The Kingdom has 14 industrial cities, two each in Riyadh and Dammam, one each in Qassim, Al-Ahsa, Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, Ha’il, Tabouk, Assir and Najran. The aggregate area of these cities is 92 million square meters. Several of these cities are ready for investment and have already been fully allocated,” Alrabiah said.
The signed contracts include the following ROT projects: potable water facilities in Dammam 1st Industrial City; potable, sewage, irrigation, and industrial water in Dammam 2nd Industrial City and the BOT (build, operate, and transfer) project for potable, sewage, irrigation, and industrial water in Al-Ahsa’ 1st Industrial City.