A brand new WSJ report means that Saudi Arabia’s now eight-year-old Neom challenge — a futuristic, carbon-neutral, 105-mile-long linear metropolis envisioned by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — has change into a monetary sinkhole.
Plagued by delays and value overruns, the nation, which has already shelled out $50 billion, may reportedly face one other 55 years of development, with an astonishing projected price of $8.8 trillion, in line with an inner audit offered to Neom’s board final summer season. That’s greater than 25 occasions Saudi Arabia’s annual price range, notes the Journal.
The scenario is beginning to resemble Saudi Arabia’s personal Waterloo, with MBS misjudging the monumental challenges inherent in his technique, very like Napoleon did earlier than him. Among the cruel realities threatening to derail the challenge are inadequate labor, insufficient roads, and an absence of electrical energy.
There are some winners, nevertheless. Consulting large McKinsey & Company is reportedly incomes greater than $130 million yearly for its providers, regardless of some controversy encompass its function, given the agency’s involvement in each the planning and validation of a few of the challenge’s monetary projections, per the story. A McKinsey spokesman tells the WSJ the agency has “strict protocols to forestall conflicts of curiosity in our engagements.”
