Major projects to come up in Jizan

Riyadh: Jizan Governor Prince Mohammad Ibn Nasser on Tuesday launched a number of strategic projects costing a total of 100 billion Saudi riyals (Dh97.5 billion) in the southern region of Saudi Arabia.

These projects included development of the port at the Jizan Economic City, setting up of a number of strategic industries such as manufacturing of motor vehicles and ships.

The deals were signed with the master developers of the economic city - Malaysian conglomerate MMC International Holdings Limited and Saudi Bin Laden Group.

The signing ceremony was also attended by Amr Dabbagh, governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia), which is supervising implementation of the project, as well as the heads of board of directors of several Malaysian and Chinese companies, which are making investments at the city.

During the occasion, MMC announced a scheme for granting of 1,000 scholarships for Saudi students in the region over a period of next four years. The first part of the scholarships will be awarded under the scheme for sending students from Jizan to the Malaysian universities for higher studies, it was announced.

Speaking on the occasion, Ibn Nasser hoped that the current global financial crisis would lead to attraction of more investments to the region. He denied rumours that there are impediments for the implementation of the economic city project.

"There will not be any delay in implementing the ambitious Jizan refinery," he said while hoping that the current financial crisis would not last long. "The current crisis would force the investors to think over making investments in much safer projects like the economic city," he said.

The developers of Jizan Economic City signed a series of agreements and deals last year, marking the beginning of construction work of the city, the foundation stone of which was laid by King Abdullah two years ago.

The original investment envisaged for JEC was more than 100 billion riyals over a period of 25 years. The Jizan governor last year announced the construction of an independent power station and a mini-port at JEC.

He also laid the foundation stone for the 600 million-riyal coastal Shaqiq-Jizan highway. MMC and Bin Laden Group signed an agreement with Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chalco) to develop, own and operate an aluminum smelter at JEC for 7.5 billion riyals.

Chalco is the sole producer of alumina in China, the second largest producer of alumina in the world, and among the top five largest producers of aluminum in the world. As part of JEC, Jizan port will be developed spreading on an area of 3.3 million square metres.