World Bank: Build roads to end poverty

The Kingdom is in the middle of a massive infrastructure overhaul worth billions for multimodal transportation systems. The plans include new and upgraded highways and roads, bridges, tunnels, high speed rail, traffic system and public transport.
During the 17th IRF’s world meeting keynote address in Riyadh, Inger Andersen, World Bank Group (WBG) vice-president Middle East and North Africa, said: “The WBG is now unified behind the clear mission of ending extreme poverty by 2030 while at the same time boosting the income of the bottom 40 percent in every country.”
She added: “Roads open the door to transformational shifts enabled by technology. Roads also allow people and goods to move for economy to grow, for wealth to be created, for prosperity to be shared.”
One area in which improvements had to be made was road safety, said Andersen. Globally, 1.24 million people died from road accidents each year. It was leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29, she described as “tragic and unacceptably high.”
“Road are common good and need to be approached as such. Their impacts transcend national border. We need to commit to sharing this common good for development and poverty reduction, and for the benefit of all,” Andersen said.
IRF is encouraging delegates at the 17th World Meeting and Exhibition in Riyadh to engage as positively as possible with the event’s Saudi hosts.
Abdullah Al-Mogbel, chairman of International Road Federation (IRF) and mayor of Riyadh, said: “The Riyadh ring road, the north-south King Fahd Road and the east-west Makkah Road have been the priority projects for highway improvements, with a focus on boosting safety and providing more on- and off- ramps.”
He added: “These are being improved through the construction of new tunnels and bridges at a series of intersections, while new traffic corridors will run across the city. We are also diversifying transportation system, scheduled to break ground in 2014 and already the world’s biggest public transport system. When the system opens to service in 2018, it will be the most modern and most extensive in the region,” Al-Mogbel said.
Billions of riyals in projects are under way in the Kingdom to develop top infrastructure, higher education and modern transportation for the sake of future generations and to gain maximum benefits.
The King Abdullah Financial District project also embodies Riyadh’s future vision to be an active, competitive, financial and commercial hub both at the national and regional level, and it supports efforts aimed at diversifying and modernizing the Kingdom’s economy.
Riyadh’s population has grown from just 18,000 to 5.9 million, emerging in the last decade as a major global city and a focal point for international commerce.