A new initiative in NEOM and Tabuk is providing financial support and training to help people working in the local crafts sector develop their businesses.

Craft+ was launched this month by NEOM’s Social Responsibility Program and the Dulani Business Center, a key Social Development Bank program. It runs for two weeks with the aim of empowering and supporting home businesses and micro-enterprises, and providing development and training assistance to help local craftspeople improve the efficiency of their operations and contribute to the development and sustainability of business in the Kingdom. This is in line with the aims of the NEOM megacity project and Saudi Vision 2030.

The Shusha Island Coral Park will become a global center to showcase innovations to protect and restore coral reefs.

NEOM and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) said that the project that will cover 100 hectares on Shusha Island on the shores of the Red Sea.

The Shusha Island Coral Park will become a global center to showcase innovations to protect and restore coral reefs and accelerate conservation solutions, helping to reduce the effects of climate change, a statement issued by Saudi Press Agency said.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2025, making NEOM a world leader in restoring and developing coral reefs.

Saudi Arabia mega project NEOM has highlighted the role of the Formula E World Championship in reinforcing sustainable innovation, promoting alternative energy solutions, contributing to the reduction of air pollution and combating climate change globally.

NEOM’s stance comes as the main partner of Mercedes EQ Formula E team and in partnership with the UN Environment Program campaign ‘#BeatAirPollution,’ which coincides with the seventh season of Formula E, and was on display during the eighth and ninth rounds in Mexico’s Puebla e-Prix this weekend.

Energy tech company Baker Hughes has been selected by industrial gases company, Air Products, to supply advanced hydrogen compression technology for the NEOM carbon-free hydrogen project in Saudi Arabia, it was announced on Wednesday.

In July 2020, Saudi companies NEOM and ACWA Power signed an agreement with Air Products to set up a $5 billion green hydrogen-based ammonia production facility powered by renewable energy in the kingdom.

Air Products and Baker Hughes said in a joint statement that they will embark on a “strategic global collaboration to develop next generation hydrogen compression to lower the cost of production and accelerate the adoption of hydrogen as a zero-carbon fuel.”

Up to 15 hotels a year will start operating between 2023 and 2025 with capacity to rise to accommodate 5 million visitors by 2030.

Saudi Arabia's $500 billion mega-city NEOM is planning to open the first of its hotels by the end of 2022 as it targets hosting about one million visitors by 2025 and 5m by 2030, its tourism chief said.

The futuristic city will open up to 15 hotels a year in the period between 2023 and 2025, before ramping up the pace to 20 to 30 hotels annually thereafter, Andrew McEvoy, sector head of tourism at NEOM, told The National during the Arabian Travel Market on Tuesday.

As economies worldwide slowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns, many governments have turned to infrastructure investments to stimulate sustainable and climate-friendly economic recovery.  Last year, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region accounted for 134 projects with a total value of $51.3 billion. The tally for the first quarter of 2021 stands at 61 projects with a total value of $49 billion with oil and gas, and power in the top-performing sectors.

NEOM has entered the frame to become the next location to host Formula E races in Saudi Arabia, with talks having taken place between city and championship officials.  The planned smart city of NEOM, situated by the Red Sea, is known to be very interested in hosting future Formula E races in its bid to become a “centre for sporting excellence”.   This comes as part of the Saudi Vision 2030 programme, which has been devised to reduce the state’s reliance on oil for economic growth following the 2014-15 price collapse.?

After three editions of the Diriyah E-Prix to date, Formula E has eight years remaining on its 10-year deal with the Saudi General Sports Authority to host races in the country, but no one location has exclusivity.   NEOM has already hosted a leg of the 2021 Dakar Rally and Extreme E could move there also following a maiden Desert X-Prix event in the Alula region across 3-4 April this year.

In January of this year (2021), NEOM (a portmanteau of the Greek word for ‘new’ and the Arabic word for ‘future’), announced its plans for THE LINE; a linear, car-free city built from scratch, housing one million citizens and running 170km in length. It’s all very Jetsons, all very inspiring, and all-too easy to see the attraction of packing your bags and moving to what promises to be a utopia in the desert.

“NEOM is all about things that are necessarily future-oriented and visionary,” its Chief Executive Nadhmi al Nasr said. Taleedah, to that end, was a pioneer; the first Saudi model to walk at the Paris Haute Couture shows in July 2018, and the epitome of a modern Saudi woman – well-travelled, well-educated, ambitious, and showing the world exactly how its done.