Desk Report
Publish: 31 Oct 2021, 04:56 pm
Alcohol || Photo: Collected
Saudi Arabia's futuristic
NEOM city has not ruled out allowing alcohol, a senior official told AFP on
Wednesday, in what would be a historic change for the deeply conservative
Muslim country.
Unlike other Gulf countries
where foreigners can have at least limited legal access to alcohol, a blanket
ban remains in the kingdom, which hosts Islam's holiest sites.
Expats consider the ban a
deterrent to working in or visiting Saudi Arabia.
But the kingdom has been
opening up to the world through sweeping economic and social reforms.
NEOM, the high-tech, $500
billion centre being built on the Red Sea, is part of de facto ruler Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan to diversify the oil-dependent
economy.
NEOM will operate under its
own founding law that is still being formulated.
Joseph Bradley, CEO of
NEOM's Tech and Digital Holding Company, could not confirm alcohol would be
allowed under the new law, but he told AFP that "everyone
understands" the need to attract foreign talent and tourists.
"What we get asked a
lot is this whole notion around is there going to be alcohol, what are you
going to do around this?" he said in an interview at the Future Investment
Initiative in Riyadh
"To be clear, NEOM is
meant to be competitive. We want the world's best and brightest to come to
NEOM."
He added: "Understand
that it is our intention to attract the most diverse and most talented
workforce and we are doing everything that we can and that we will do to
attract that workforce."
'Social backlash'
NEOM, which will feature
robots and is trialling airborne taxis, is on track to welcome its first
businesses and residents by 2025, Bradley said.
The founding law should be
approved by the NEOM board within one to two years, he added. Prince Mohammed
is NEOM's chairman.
"I have not seen the
specifics of the law in regards to (alcohol)," Bradley said. "But I
can tell you very, very clearly that everyone understands that we're going to
build a founding law that attracts the tourism market, that attracts the tech
market, that attracts the manufacturing market."
Among his reforms since
becoming crown prince in 2017, Prince Mohammed, known as MBS, lifted a ban on
women driving and curbed the powers of the feared religious police.
But the reforms have been
accompanied by a crackdown on critics of Prince Mohammed's rule, including
female activists.
Legalising alcohol would
break a major taboo in a country known for Wahhabism, a rigid interpretation of
Islam.
This month, a Saudi official
told AFP that allowing alcohol in a limited form -- in designated areas or only
to foreigners, for example -- had been under consideration, calling it a
"delicate issue" and saying authorities feared a "social backlash".
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