Dream job alert: Get paid millions, tax-free, to build a gleaming city of the future from the ground up.
There’s just one catch: Your employer is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and that city is Neom, the brainchild of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS, for short).
Driving the news: Saudi Arabia is luring talent from around the world to work on the project with annual pay packages of over US$1 million for senior executives, per The Wall Street Journal, which stacks up to over 30% more than the typical CEO salary found at a major US company.
- Canadians on payroll so far include Montreal-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin (which is working on the development) and former Toronto Transit Commission Chair Adam Giambrone, who's heading up the city's Land Mobility and Transportation arm.
Why it matters: The megaproject is central to MBS’s plans to diversify the kingdom’s economy away from oil (not that it's having any trouble in this department) and build a tourism and technology sector from scratch—but the project is still very much in the “idea” phase.
- More than $1 billion has been put towards planning and consultations, of which the main (public) output has been a few slick marketing videos and renderings.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has signalled that his administration may move away from the country's long-standing policy of cooperation with Saudi Arabia after the kingdom joined with Russia and other OPEC+ members to cut oil production—a shift that would likely undermine MBS’s regime.
- “Let’s be very candid about this: It’s Putin and Saudi Arabia against the United States,” a top-ranking Senate Democrat told reporters.
What’s next: If you’re considering a job at Neom, it’s probably worth having a Plan B—a shift in the geopolitical winds could endanger the entire project.