NEOM Smart City: The City of Future (The Urban Oasis in Saudi Desert): Fid-Bau Portal

NEOM Smart City: The City of Future (The Urban Oasis in Saudi Desert)

Madakam, Somayya / Bhawsar, Pragya

Most of the nations in the world are supporting the creation of smart cities to provide better life to their urban citizens. Saudi Arabia, which has been known for its oil resources, is not an exception. The country has started the constitution of a smart city called “NEOM” from scratch. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to study the NEOM smart city. As the smart city phenomenon is contemporary and is still evolving, the case study method for exploration has been used. Secondary data, i.e., blogs, articles, pictures, and videos, were collected for review and analysis. Content analysis is carried out, and for thematic narration, ATLAS.ti software has been used. The chapter exposed that the NEOM project is located in Tabuk Province, in the peninsula of Saudi Arabia in the northwest of the Saudi Kingdom. The NEOM project includes land within the Egyptian and Jordanian borders with an area of around 26,500 km². The word NEOM was coined from two words “NEO” = “New” and “M” = “Mostaqbal” = “Future,” “NEOM” = “New Future.” This project was brainstormed and exhibited first time at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), on October 24, 2017, by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The former Alcoa chairman cum CEO and Siemens AG former president and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld is the principal director. NEOM smart city demonstrates high profile of new urbanism, design, architecture, and technology principles. It will have own tax and labor laws and unique judicial system in order to provide a healthy environment to its region-specific residents, investors, and employees.