Witness the Transformation from Industrial, to Smart City
In recent years, falling global oil prices have created challenging opportunity for Saudi Arabia to move towards renewable energy and opening new investments projects that will support the economy since oil generates about 70 percent of the country’s revenue. As such, Saudi Arabia announced its new transformation program called ‘Vision 2030’ in April 2016. This ambitious yet achievable blueprint has clarified the goals of developing cities, achieving environmental sustainability, improving digital infrastructures, and expanding the variety of digital services. In particular, this new initiative recognizes the significance of expanding industrial clusters and attracting more high value-added investments — as feasible ways to build up national competitiveness. In line with Saudi Arabia’s vision, the Smart Yanbu Industrial City project has started to build upon the hopes of Saudi Arabian citizens for transformation.
In 1975, Yanbu Industrial City was set up according to a royal decree and managed by a Royal Commission. After more than 40 years of fast growth, Yanbu industrial city has become the third largest oil refinery center in the world. It can produce more than 1.1 million barrels of oil every day, and its yearly industrial production capacity reaches 131 million tons. Yanbu has also set up the largest petroleum transportation port near the Red Sea and established key petroleum liquefying and processing locations.
Yanbu industrial city has become the beneficiary of high-speed industrialization. The efficient city layout, wide roads, sufficient public spaces, and green parks all indicate the vitality of this fast growing city. However, Yanbu is also facing ever-increasing pressure. For example, limited network bandwidth cannot meet the requirements of governments, enterprises, and residents, affecting office efficiency and online entertainment experiences. The daily operations of large refining factories, ports, and warehouses, as well as large-scale city construction require a large number of heavy vehicles. Overloading and speeding by these heavy vehicles have caused costly maintenance for the roads. Public parking spaces are difficult to manage because there are too many private cars. Road lighting costs are high. Building rubble and waste are sometimes not handled in a timely manner. Security risks exist in densely populated areas. A large number of underground industrial facilities need security due to lack of monitoring.
In line with ‘Vision 2030,’ the Royal Commission for Yanbu (RCY) decided to take the lead in addressing the Yanbu industrial city challenges by constructing the Smart Yanbu Industrial City.
Dr. Alaa Nassif, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RCY, said, “Today’s global competition is fierce. We hope to maintain the competitiveness of the city through our Smart City initiative. We have focused on industrial growth over the past 40 years. Now, we will gradually shift to more diversified sectors including entertainment, tourism, and science and technology. In doing so, we desire to create industrial clusters, enhance collaboration between industries, expand business diversification, improve investment environments, and enhance competitiveness.”
“The vision of building a Smart Yanbu Industrial City is aligned with the ‘Vision 2030’ goal. It aims to improve the quality of life through a smart city. We have set a series of specific goals.
