Jafza-Rakisa deal to manage Saudi economic city

(FILE)  

Jafza International, the global free zone operations arm of Economic Zones World, Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabia’s Rakisa Holding for the development and management of Rakisa Economic City in Hail, Saudi Arabia.

Under the agreement, both parties will explore investment opportunities to jointly develop Rakisa Economic City.

The Economic City, a SR30 billion (Dh29.5bn) project, spread over 15,600 hectares, will be the second largest economic zone in Saudi Arabia, incorporating an international airport, dry port, railway station, agricultural industries and services, an entertainment area, mining centre, business centre, knowledge area, and residential complexes.

“Our strength is in studying, evaluating, validating, assessing, developing, managing, operating and investing in special economic zones and logistics parks. The MoU on the Rakisa Economic City is one more step towards our aim of setting up a global network of economic zones,” said Salma Hareb (pictured above, left), Chief Executive Officer, Jafza and Economic Zones World in a statement. “The MoU is the first step in the establishment of a working relationship and sets out a framework for our relationship,” said Abdullah J Taibah (pictured above, right), Chief Executive Officer, Rakisa Economic City.

The economic city will eventually house more than 300,000 people and provide 55,000 jobs in seven phases of development over the next 40 years.

Jafza International will now be looking at projects in Eastern Europe and Russia, Samir Chaturvedi, Executive Vice-President, Jafza International, told Emirates Business earlier.

“Our next destination will be Eastern Europe and Russia. Latin America and China are on our radar,” Chaturvedi said, refusing to give further details.

“We haven’t decided anything as of yet,” he added.

In November, Jafza International tied up with Tata Group subsidiary to develop 27 business and logistics parks across India at the cost of Dh9 billion.

The company acquired around 5.260 million square metres of land in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, to set up a world-class logistics and business park comprising light manufacturing, warehousing and distribution facilities.