Shaping the future at NEOM 
A new developmental glory — before it got materialized into reality — was a dream nurtured by a deep belief in the importance of developing the world for the benefit of humanity. That dream was elaborated — based on science, vision, experience, and skills — by a philosophy that looks to the future through the lens of ambition to achieve a brighter tomorrow that is more fascinating and civilized than the past or present.
For a creative vision for civilization held in the consciousness of a certain nation to be achieved and transformed into a tangible reality requires the overcoming of challenges, difficulties, modalities, and mechanisms that placed a large burden on traditional administrative thinking.
This explains why nations wanting to put themselves on any future map of civilization need a creative leadership that is capable of taming challenges and changing them from challenges to magnificent, landmark achievements.
Urban infrastructure challenges include roads, service complexes, energy sources, transportation and traffic, security, and health- and social-welfare systems.
The vision of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was focused on the concerns of both the near and far future of the Kingdom, motivated by the desire to ensure an appropriate standing that is worthy of the Kingdom’s history and present in the future of global civilization.
This noble objective has been expressed by the Crown Prince in a number of his pioneering speeches, including the one at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference, in which he discussed NEOM, saying: “We want to reserve a place for ourselves in the future.”
The vision of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was focused on the concerns of both the near and far future of the Kingdom, motivated by the desire to ensure an appropriate standing that is worthy of the Kingdom’s history and present in the future of global civilization.
Fares Al-Ghannami
Hence the recent announcement of the project known as The Line, a comprehensive vision of environmental responsibility, urban sustainability and the transition towards 100 percent renewable energy; a vision that is manifested in the statements and speeches of the Crown Prince, the last of which was on July 25, in which he announced the design of The Line. The city is designed in an unprecedented way that will allow everyone access to its facilities and services within a few minutes, via a high-speed train that can transport people from one end of the city to the other in less than 20 minutes.
The Line will be free of cars and carbon emissions and will rely fully on renewable energy. It will also contribute to preserving 95 percent of NEOM’s lands for nature.
The Line is, therefore, a realistic embodiment of a development philosophy that deploys modern technology to improve the standard of living in the Kingdom — a primary objective of Saudi Vision 2030.
It is evidence of the administration’s adoption of an approach founded on modern thinking, which views major developmental projects as an ongoing evolution; an interdependent system that cannot bear the desired fruits unless harmony — in both structure and function — is achieved among all its components and entities. Each project is necessary for the objectives of the other projects.
The Line is an example of this. The project was dictated by the necessity to build a city that will enable its residents to lead lives based on sophistication, calmness, ease, and environmental purity, and that is integrated with NEOM’s other projects, including Oxagon — a city for advanced industries; Trojena — a tourism city; and Enowa, a zone for companies concerned with innovation, energy, water, and hydrogen.
The Line is the fruit of a new developmental philosophy that adopts innovation and originality as primary aims of the modern projects that it aims to launch. Its design was the result of a collective creative brainstorming session that lasted for six months and included tireless discussions between the officials and experts who gathered to achieve a common goal: To reach the utmost level of dazzling creativity in designing and planning a city so that it would be unique in its residential identity and an exceptional model for demographic and geographic diversity that responds to the new foundations of administrative and developmental governance.
• Fares Al-Ghannami is a Saudi writer and intellectual interested in political affairs. Twitter: @farescom200
