The Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu has allocated SR10 billion ($2.66 billion) for the development of Jubail-2, the Kingdom’s import substitution and export promotion program. The industrial zone, named the Western Zone for Industries, will house twenty basic industries. A source at the Royal Commission told Arab News that designs for projects to be implemented in the zone are complete.
The source said that the industrial zone is to be expanded in four phases, beginning with Al-Khorsaniya - Ras Tanoura Road. Designs for infrastructure facilities, including roads, tunnels, water pipelines, and transport routes to King Fahd Industrial Port are also complete.
According to Andrea Pampanini, the author of two books on industrial development in Saudi Arabia (“Cities from the Arabian Desert: the Building of Jubail and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia” and “The Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu: 25 Years of Accomplishments”), there are 2,280 projects in Jubail and Yanbu, of which 228 are in the industrial sector, 1,347 in the service sector, and five in the agricultural sector. Total investment in the projects was SR57.61 billion. The principal investor countries were the U.S., Japan, France, the UK, Canada, Syria, India, Germany, Jordan and Palestine. The two industrial cities now account for approximately 7% of the Kingdom’s GDP, Pampanini told Arab News in a recent interview in Riyadh. Pampanini is currently writing a third book, which documents progress towards privatisation in the Kingdom.
Pampanini said that both industrial cities have succeeded in attracting the best Saudi managers and administrators, and have obtained substantial investments in infrastructure, and industrial and commercial ventures for forthcoming years.
The new industrial zone - Jubail-2 - will be the site of a $1 billion polyethylene National Chemical Company plant to be set up by the National Industrialization Company (NIC) next year. The National Chemical Company is a subsidiary of NIC, which has other ventures in Jubail industrial city.
In a separate development, Saudi Hollandi Bank (SHB) announced the signing of a $47 million financing agreement with Gulf Advanced Chemical Industries Company (GACIC). The SHB-arranged facility will finance part of the cost of GACIC’s Butanediol (BDO) project, which is under construction in Jubail Industrial City. The facility is expected to be commissioned by the fourth quarter of 2005.
Source: SPA
