The financial rise of Riyadh and the Jeddah/Makkah region

[al-Hasani]

"Saudi cities Riyadh and Jeddah-Makkah were among the best performing metropolitan areas in the past year, according to the latest The Brookings Institution.

The institute surveyed 300 metropolitan regions which account for 48% of global output, but a mere 19% of the population, underlining how concentrated urban areas can be engines of growth.

"Three-quarters of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in 2012 were located in developing Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa," the report notes.

"By contrast, almost 90% of the slowest-growing metro economies were in Western Europe and North America. These recent trends reflect the accelerating shift of economic growth from developed metro areas in the global West towards developing metropolitan areas in the global South and East."

Instead of looking at just GDP growth in the year, the survey also examined the annualized growth rate of employment, to develop a new ranking system.

"These two indicators reflect the importance that people and policymakers attach to achieving rising incomes and standards of living (GDP per capita), and generating widespread labour market opportunity (employment). They are combined into an economic performance index on which the 300 metro areas are ranked for 2012."

According to this metrics, Riyadh emerged as the Middle East's best performing metropolis and the third best in the world, improving on its performance last year when it was ranked 15th.

Meanwhile, the Jeddah-Makkah conurbation fared well too, emerging as the 14th best performing metropolitan in the world. The area was ranked 25th in the previous edition of survey.


Equally important, Riyadh's employment growth was 4.5%, while Jeddah clocked a near 4% growth in jobs this year, as the Kingdom's pumped billions over the past few years to bring the unemployment rate down below 10%.

"Seven metro areas in Middle Eastern countries (Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia) and eight metro areas in African nations (Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa)," the institute notes in the report.

"This study includes only five Sub-Saharan African metro areas (all in South Africa), because of the small size of their metro economies and severely limited data availability/reliability for other metropolitan areas in this region."
However, other Middle East cities did not fare as well. Casablanca (53), Kuwait City (55), Cairo (84) and Alexandria (94) were among the 100 best performing cities. The two Egyptian cities performance is commendable given they were both hit by the Arab Spring revolution that swept the nation.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi - led by the oil sector - was the 110th best performing economy, but Dubai saw its economy shrink 2.7% this year, according to The Brookings Institution data.

Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Jeddah-Makkah were also among the top 10 best income growth rates, according to the data."

Rise of RiyadhSaudi Arabia - Zawya

 

[A.Rafay]

If you have been to that Sky Bridge

 

[al-Hasani]

For more information this useful link should be visited.

Global MetroMonitor | Brookings Institution

 

[W.11]

making fancy buildings is not equivalent for true economies, when saud runs off oil, these desert cities will soon vanish

 

[al-Hasani]

Since when is Jeddah, the pearl of the Red Sea, (one of the most beautiful seas in the world and that with the second biggest coral reef after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia) a desert city? Or Makkah for that matter which is located in Hejaz that has all kind of landscapes (tropical like forests in the south, forests, stunning mountains, tropical coastline, volcanic desert/sand dunes, hills, wadis, oasis). Much the same with Riyadh that is located near Wadi Hanifa (one of the biggest valleys in the world), mountains, hundreds of km of green farms that produce vegetables and fruits for KSA and other Arab countries etc.

You don't know what you are talking about. KSA have invested billions of dollars in renewable energy, wind, solar and new universities. Much more is to come and much more has to be done.

The fact is that KSA has the biggest GDP (nominal) of any Arab country, that our economy is the fastest growing in the region and one of the fastest in the whole world, that we have natural resources in abundance and that our government has long ago realized that there will be a future without oil and gas one day (maybe centuries from now).

Secondly our population is the most rapidly growing in the Middle East. Our country is the most stable in a very unstable region of the world and our economy is the most stable as well. The Riyal is a very stable currency as well and our country attracts investors from all over the world. Moreover we have invested heavily outside of the country.

If you have anything positive to say then go ahead but don't pollute this thread with ignorance and nonsense.

We are heading towards the right direction but much still has to be changed but this has nothing to do with the topic which is about the extremely rapid economical growth in Riyadh and the Jeddah/Makkah region. Which is extremely positive during a worldwide financial crisis.

 

[al-Hasani]

For more information see this page.

Global MetroMonitor | Brookings Institution

You can see the economical growth and GDP of every major big city that has data.

Also worth noticing is the rapid growth of Chinese cities. India is nowhere to be seen.

 

[al-Hasani]

Riyadh:

 

[Sinnerman108]

making fancy buildings is not equivalent for true economies, when saud runs off oil, these desert cities will soon vanish

This may or may not come as surprise, but Saudi Arabia is actually finding more oil and gas.
They have invested enough to produce more energy than they need ( solar, wind and NUCLEAR ).

so I suggest you rethink your theory.

 

[al-Hasani]

This may or may not come as surprise, but Saudi Arabia is actually finding more oil and gas.
They have invested enough to produce more energy than they need ( solar, wind and NUCLEAR ).

so I suggest you rethink your theory.

Indeed 7abibi. One just need to visit this thread below to see what kind of long-standing and diverse investments KSA are in the middle of conducting together with other GCC member states. GCC itself is going to expand with Yemen in 2015 if all goes according to the plan. Jordan requested membership in 2011 as well.

http://www.defence.pk/forums/arab-defence/243555-gcc-states-economic-development.html

Modern infrastructure, skyscrapercs, new universities etc. is being built all over the world. It's just a sign of wealth. China is doing it and the developing world. USA/West did it in the past due to their natural resources and they still do it.

The user King Solomon wrote a nice post about it. But nothing surprises me when the usual anti-Arabs enter the building. Ironically often they nor their countries enjoy such riches or the exact opposite.

This is a lame argument of those who hate Arabs - that Arabs got rich because of oil.

They're ignorant of the fact that just about every major power, including US and Russia, got rich because of oil, gas and other natural resources.

Russia's oil dependency is well known. Not many know that US's rise as a superpower started with it striking black gold in Texas back in 1901 - Google "spindletop" and get educated. Democracy, freedom, rule of law, civil rights and all other gimmicks took a century to come by.

Arabs have comparative advantage at producing oil, in other words, they're better at it. So they'll continue to produce it. Just like switzerland is better at watches, india for agriculture, taiwan for electronics and so on.

Let's not forget that Arabs were rich way before the oil was discovered and that richness goes all the way back to ancient Yemen (Arabia Felix) which is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Moreover Oman/Yemen/Hejaz controlled large parts of the trade in various areas around the world. From Africa, the Middle East all the way to Indonesia. Not to mention colonization which started before the Europeans picked it up. Many forget that as well.

 

[Silverblaze]

This may or may not come as surprise, but Saudi Arabia is actually finding more oil and gas.
They have invested enough to produce more energy than they need ( solar, wind and NUCLEAR ).

so I suggest you rethink your theory.

Give him a break. He might be referring to Venezuela which has more oil than anyone and it has chosen a different path.

 

[Silverblaze]

Some new cities were proposed to be built by Saudi Arabia.

 

[al-Hasani]

Some new cities were proposed to be built by Saudi Arabia.

See this link for further information. Just a few of the planned/started projects. When there is economic stability, very rapid growth etc. like in KSA then projects will start/come automatically which they do. They also need to do such kind of projects since KSA population is the most rapidly growing in the Middle East currently.

http://www.defence.pk/forums/arab-defence/243555-gcc-states-economic-development.html

 

[BATMAN]

making fancy buildings is not equivalent for true economies, when saud runs off oil, these desert cities will soon vanish

Having oil alone is no guaranty of development, central African republics are an example.

You are far from reality, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world, with planned industrial cities and unaccounted small industrial estates.

Saudi Arabia is rich in mineral resources other than oil... e.g. gold.

Where as oil is not running out soon and credit of Saudi Arabia's current standing goes to its governors.
I don't think any one could have performed any better.

 

[W.11]

Having oil alone is no guaranty of development, central African republics are an example.

You are far from reality, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world, with planned industrial cities and unaccounted small industrial estates.

Saudi Arabia is rich in mineral resources other than oil... e.g. gold.

Where as oil is not running out soon and credit of Saudi Arabia's current standing goes to its governors.
I don't think any one could have performed any better.

the economy is based on oil and not self reliance, what if one day oil runs out? they will be stone age in no time

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Give him a break. He might be referring to Venezuela which has more oil than anyone and it has chosen a different path.

We just discovered 10s of millions of new oil fields and natural gas. Surprisingly, the West coast has more gas than oil ,unlike the East coast. As for the other natural resources, the Government up to this moment never decided what ought to be next. Similarly, we didn't start producing a competitive portion of Gas ,Qatar won't like it ,and we care about them TBQH.

the economy is based on oil and not self reliance, what if one day oil runs out? they will be stone age in no time

That could be true if we didn't have taken countermeasures.