{"id":275981,"date":"2026-02-01T22:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T22:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275981\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T22:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T22:11:10","slug":"saudi-arabia-set-to-redraw-economic-road-map-as-megaprojects-scale-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275981\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia set to redraw economic road map as megaprojects scale down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Almost a decade after launching the Vision 2030 programme to diversify its oil-dependent economy, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/saudi-arabia?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Saudi Arabia<\/a> is redirecting its spending away from attention-grabbing futuristic urban projects into sectors that hold more promise to deliver results.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Since last year, the programme has undergone a review following a US$8 billion writedown at the end of 2024. The kingdom\u2019s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has scaled down glitzy projects significantly, such as the US$500 billion 170km (105 mile) long flat city, The Line, in the northwest Neom region.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The value of construction contracts awarded by Saudi authorities plunged by 72 per cent year on year during the second quarter of 2025, according to an investor briefing issued by Kuwait-based asset manager KAMCO Investment in July.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The US$925 billion PIF sovereign wealth fund is expected to soon announce a revision to Saudi Vision 2030, first unveiled in 2016. Saudi officials have already identified artificial intelligence and technology, logistics and transport, mining and tourism as Riyadh\u2019s new focal areas.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Neom was not mentioned in the 2026 budget announced in early December, by Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launches The Line in January 2021. Photo by Saudi Royal Palace\/Bandar Al-Jaloud\/AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/a7b2e683-90a9-4f75-b8c3-26c1a8da4b18_342bab12.jpg\" title=\"Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launches The Line in January 2021. Photo by Saudi Royal Palace\/Bandar Al-Jaloud\/AFP\"\/>Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launches The Line in January 2021. Photo by Saudi Royal Palace\/Bandar Al-Jaloud\/AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This first omission of Neom since the project was unveiled in 2017 showed that the country\u2019s megaprojects were being \u201crecalibrated to ensure that they are delivering what they are meant to deliver\u201d, Jadaan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost a decade after launching the Vision 2030 programme to diversify its oil-dependent economy, Saudi Arabia is redirecting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[134306,218,134305,72,114,63246,113,134308,2956,61,11829,60,134307,134304,134303,73367,85516,383,22261],"class_list":["post-275981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-afc-asian-cup","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-asian-games","tag-business","tag-china","tag-economic-diversification","tag-economy","tag-expo-2030","tag-fifa","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-kamco-investment","tag-maaden","tag-mohammed-al-jadaan","tag-neom","tag-public-investment-fund","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-vision-2030"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}