Alrabiah pointed that that MODON, which started with 14 industrial cities in 2007, now enjoys 22 such developments. He attributed MODON’s rapid growth to the growing demand for industrial projects in the Kingdom from both local and international entrepreneurs.
The total cost of contracts for the projects during the past four years has reached more than SR7 billion, Alrabiah told a press conference at MODON headquarters on Saturday night.
The director-general explained that the government is setting up new towns and expanding existing cities located in the neighborhood of the industrial cities to boost local industry.
He also said the existing industrial projects had provided some 320,000 direct jobs and a larger number of indirect jobs connected to the the various industrial projects.
He said the total cost of the expenditure on projects for establishing industrial cities would include delivery of services to the industrial cities such as road projects,feed the industrial cities with electricity and water, and other infrastructure development projects, which include network, electricity, lighting and drainage systems, sanitation and water projects, wastewater treatment plants and establishment of administrative offices as well as developing facilities and support services in residential, commercial and logistics areas.
“The industrial growth during the past 20 years is nearly twice that of the economic growth in the country,” he said, noting that the industrial cities had seen tremendous strides in recent years.
“Several incentives are provided by the government for the industrialists,” he said, adding that they include a nominal rent for industrial lands, provision of water and energy at subsidized rates, and granting of loans of up to 50 percent of the capital, as well as custom duty exemption for machinery and raw materials. The government departments have also been requested to give preference to local goods during their procurement, he said.
He said plans are under way to set up a third industrial city in the south of Riyadh to accommodate more than 120 factories on an area of 1 million sq. m at a cost of SR24.4 million.
The blue print is being made by MODON in cooperation with Directorate of Prisons through the Ministry of Interior.
“The inmates of the social reform prison in the nearby Alhaar district would be able to work in these cities with an arrangement with the ministry of interior.” He also said infrastructure development for the third industrial city on an area of 20 million sq. m would cost SR277 million.
The demand for industrial projects are so high that the second industrial city in Jeddah received a response beyond MODON’s expectations, he said.
Saudi Arabia’s second automobile manufacturing company has been set up in Dammam with a capital investment of SR500 million,he said adding that some 25,000 Isuzu trucks will be manufactured in this facility when it begins production in 2012.
He said 40 percent of its products would be exported to regional markets.
The plant will create 800 new jobs. Covering an area of 120,000 square meters in the second industrial city of Dammam, the plant is one of the major projects aimed at transferring automobile technology.
