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The 334-square kilometre project in Qiddiya, southwest of Riyadh, would rival Walt Disney and include high-end theme parks, motor sport facilities and a safari park, officials say.
RIYADH: Saudi King Salman will launch the construction of an “entertainment city” near Riyadh on Wednesday, authorities said, part of a series of multi-billion dollar projects as the kingdom seeks to diversify its oil-reliant economy.
The 334-square kilometre project in Qiddiya, southwest of Riyadh, would rival Walt Disney and include high-end theme parks, motor sport facilities and a safari park, officials say.
The facility highlights a “relentless effort to develop giga-projects that will help achieve many direct and indirect economic returns”, project official Fahd bin Abdullah Tounsi was quoted as saying in a government statement on Monday.
Qiddiya chief executive Michael Reininger said he expects the project will draw foreign investors in entertainment and other sectors, but did not specify the total cost of construction.
Such projects are the brainchild of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a self-styled liberal change agent who is the chief architect of the sweeping “Vision 2030” reform programme.
Saudi Arabia has dazzled investors with several plans for hi-tech “giga projects”, funded in part by its sovereign wealth fund, but some sceptics question their viability in an era of cheap oil.
The kingdom has unveiled blueprints to build NEOM, a mega project billed as a regional Silicon Valley, in addition to the Red Sea project, a reef-fringed resort destination — both worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Analysts say the projects could create funding pressures at a time when the government faces a yawning budget deficit and growth in the kingdom`s non-oil economy is only slowly gathering pace.
The reform stems partly from an economic motive to boost domestic spending on entertainment as the kingdom has been reeling from an oil slump since 2014.
Saudis currently splurge billions of dollars annually to see films and visit amusement parks in neighbouring tourist hubs like Dubai and Bahrain.
In February, Saudi Arabia`s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) announced it will stage more than 5,000 festivals and concerts in 2018, double the number of last year, and pump $64 billion in the sector in the coming decade.

The Niti Aayog CEO further said that the country has showed improvement on ease of doing business, however, remain backward on human development index.
NEW DELHI: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Tuesday said that the reason why India is backward is because of the states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. “Eastern part of India particularly states like Bihar, UP, Chattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan is keeping India backward especially on social indicators,” he told ANI.
Kant’s statement comes at the first Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Memorial Lecture at Jamia Millia Islamia University.
The Niti Aayog CEO further said that the country has shown improvement in ease of doing business, however, remain backward on human development index.
“While we’ve improved on ease of doing business, we’ve remained backward on human development index,” he added.
India is still 131 out of 188 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI), Kant said.
Reacting to ‘Challenges of Transforming India’ he said that the part of southern and western India was doing well and growing speedily.
“And when the country`s HDI has to improve and we have to focus on these social indicators. We are working on these things through Aspirational Districts Programme,” he added.
Stressing upon the significance of sustainable growth, the NITI Aayog CEO said, “Education and health are vital and in these two areas India is lagging behind. Our learning outcomes are poor – a class 5 student is not able to do class 2 subtractions. Class 5 student is not able to read his mother tongue. Infant mortality rates are very high. Unless we improve on these aspects, it will be difficult to grow in a consistent way.”
He also encouraged women to participate in decision-making process. He said, “There must be a conscious effort to frame policies to give women opportunities.”Vice Chancellor of Jamia University Talat Ahmad was also present at the event.
Last month, NITI Aayog launched a baseline ranking mechanism under which 101 most underdeveloped districts of the country which have been termed as ‘aspirational’ would be competing with each other in terms of performance.
While announcing the launch of ranking for the “Aspirational Districts’, NITI Aayog Kant had said, “India cannot grow at a high rate on a long run until these districts catch up, whatever high are the GDP number, it has no meaning until the benefit of growth percolates down to very basic level.”

The villagers sitting in the choupal said that not a single toilet has been built, leading to CM Adityanath publicly rebuking authorities
Pratapgar: Reaching out to Dalits in villages of Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday visited Kandhaipur Madhupur village in Pratapgarh district where he held a choupal with villagers and dined with them.
Under the scheme ‘Gram Swarajya Yojna,’ where the state government aims to reach out over 50,000 village panchayats in Uttar Pradesh, the CM was seen meeting with the family and the locals at the village, while reviewing various development projects.
During one particular open house question-answer session, Adityanath asked villagers, “Have toilets been built here?”
To this, the entire village echoed in a chorus, “No.”
The villagers sitting in the choupal said that not a single toilet has been built.
On hearing the villagers complain, Adityanath called the local authorities in front of everyone, directing him sternly to transfer the money for toilets in their Gramin accounts within 24 hours.
He further directed authorities to make sure each villager has a ration card.
Adityanath later visited a house of a Dalit family and had dinner with them.
“I am feeling happy. My family is also happy (on meeting with Adityanath). We never thought that he (Adityanath) would come and have food with us,” said the Dalit man, Dayaram.
Chief Minister Adityanath on Monday paid a surprise visit to a grain mandi and a hospital in Pratapgarh.
On Sunday, he visited Roja Gehu Mandi in Shahjahanpur and interacted with the farmers there. He also held talks with the farmers and locals at Lakhimpur and Amethi.

Shiv Sena, in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, launched a scathing attack on PM Modi
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Shiv Sena, in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ – a Marathi language daily newspaper, launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, holding him responsible for the ‘irresponsible’ statements made BJP lawmakers and members.
“In this BJP raj, inspired by (PM) Modi, party ministers have no control over their tongue,” said Shiv Sena in an editorial piece, while referring to the recent statement made by party lawmaker Santosh Gangwar.
Gangwar had said the “incidents of rape in the country are unfortunate, but sometimes they cannot be prevented”. The statement, made in response to the massive outrage across the country over rape and murder of minor girls in Kathua, Unnao and Surat, had sparked a massive row.
“Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was also the country’s Prime Minister, spoke few but correct words. But (PM) Modi, as pointed out by his criticisers, speaks on any issue at any time. Up till yesterday, (PM) Modi was entertaining the media. Today, the entertainment is being provided by Rahul Gandhi and others including (BJP) ministers like Santosh Gangwar who reflect the (BJP) party’s mindset with their inner voice sometimes spilling out in the open,” added the editorial piece.
The piece went on to dissect PM Modi’s recent warning to party leaders, where he had asked party members to refrain from making “irresponsible” statements.
“Earlier too, the PM had asked its party members to speak sensibly without any effect. People still end up speaking without thinking,” it said.
The Shiv Sena also recalled how BJP members forced the then late politician RR Patil to resign over his comments on the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
“Following the (2008 Mumbai) terror attacks, the then home minister RR Patil had mistakenly said that ‘such small things keep happening in big cities’. There was a massive furore over this with BJP members gheraoing him and forcing him to resign. But Santosh Gangwar statement and crime is way more serious, but he continues to be the minister, with no one asking for his resignation,” wrote the article.
Patil, who died in September 2014, had said at a press conference, “In big cities like this (Mumbai), small incidents do happen. It’s not a total failure.” His comments drew severe flak for downplaying the gravity of the situation. He was later forced to resign after furore over the comments.

Karnataka has suffered badly under the BJP rule, said HD Deve Gowda, the Janata Dal (Secular) supremo and former Prime Minister of India on Tuesday.
BENGALURU: Karnataka has suffered badly under the BJP rule, said HD Deve Gowda, the Janata Dal (Secular) supremo and former Prime Minister of India on Tuesday.
“Karnataka suffered badly under BJP rule, they had three Chief Ministers in five years.This is BJP’s contribution. In five years of Congress rule though there was only one CM but look what has happened to Lokayukta. Or the Public Service Commission or even the Corporation,” said Gowda.
Earlier, Gowda had said won’t form a coalition government with the BJP under any circumstances.
“The state has suffered so badly by the BJP rule. In five years, there were three chief ministers. That is BJP’s contribution. I don’t want to name the leaders who have gone to jail during BJP rule in Karnataka,” the JD (S) supremo told Smita Prakash, Editor, ANI, in an exclusive interview.
Speaking on his term as the Chief Minister, the veteran politician said, “From Day 1, I have stood for secularism, not for emotional politics. When I became the CM, I asked DG Ramalingam how many Muslim constables are there in the Police Department? He said 0.01%. So it was humanity which made me give reservations.”
“I have also to take the blame as I supported Congress (in the Corporation). Just only to protect my secular credentials, I agreed to support them. The BJP was at my doors but I said no to it. But, hereafter supporting (Congress), what is our position?,” questioned Gowda.
Referring to allegations that JDS is a father-son party, Gowda said, “There are 4 former ministers who belong to backward class, and five-time ministers are all in the field. If media doesn’t want to take this into consideration but only harp about father and son then I can only laugh at it.”
Earlier, the JDS leader had said that the masses want to see his son.