Explained: Why Saudi Arabia Is Building World's First Non-Profit City And How Will It Work

Saudi Arabia to build the first-ever non-profit city. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced the launch last year in November and recently released the master plan of the project.

The city will have several interesting features to encourage and cultivate leadership quality among youths.

Why is the city built?

The name of the city will be Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Nonprofit City, located in the Irqah neighbourhood adjacent to Wadi Hanifa. The city would be human-centred, advanced digital metropolis, sustainable and pedestrian-friendly. About 44% of the total area will be allocated for green open spaces.

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The chief executive officer of the City, David Henry said that the goal of the city is to foster Saudi youth talent by establishing a premier ecosystem, and a global centre for incubating innovative, educational, and creative enterprises.

Dr. Ghassan Alshibl, chairman of Nonprofit City, said: ¡°With the support of the Crown Prince, Nonprofit City is dedicated to the goal of creating a vibrant Saudi youth talent system to shape the future of the Kingdom and the world, by encouraging learning and developing leadership skills among youth.¡±

What will the city include?

Revealing the details of the city, the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation, also known as Misk, said that the boundaries of the non-profit city will cover about 3.4 square Km of area in western Riyadh.

Saudi Crown prince allocated the area developed under his patronage. The commercial area includes more than 306,000 sq m.

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The master plan includes entertainment, food, retail and residential areas with 6,000 apartments, 500 villas and townhouses.

The city will host academies, colleges, conference centre, schools, a science museum, and a creative centre for innovators in sciences and modern technology like artificial intelligence, IoT and robotics.

Furthermore, the city will feature an arts academy and art gallery, performing art theatre, play area, cooking academy and hosting of venture capital firms etc.

First non-profit city of its kind

As stated by the Crown Prince, this is going to be the first non-profit city of its kind and will help in achieving the objective of his foundation. The goals of the Mohammed bin Salman Misk Foundation are to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and qualifying future leaders by defining non-profit work etc.

The crown prince said, ¡°the project will provide services that contribute to creating an attractive environment for all beneficiaries of the city¡¯s offerings.¡±

Misk Foundation, a charitable organisation

In 2011, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz founded the Misk Foundation to cultivate and promote learning and leadership in the youth for a better future of the country. It is a non-profit charitable organization that helps in empowering the youth through education and entrepreneurship. It enables the community to learn, develop and advance in business, literary and cultural fields, social and technological sciences by creating incubation centres.

Who is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman?

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In 2009, he became a special adviser to his father (then the governor of Riyadh). Before this, he had also worked with various state departments.

In 2013, Bin Salman was named head of the Crown Prince's Court, with the rank of minister. His political acts include launching a military campaign in Yemen in March 2015 along with other Arab states.

Ruling as an authoritarian, Bin Salman is allegedly involved in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist in Washington Post. Khashoggi was said to be killed because he had criticised the Saudi government.

Bin Salman introduced Vision 2030 which includes the reduction of the country¡¯s dependence on oil revenue. He diversified the economy and opened to foreign investment even more.

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