CHAPTER FOUR: Al Aghar Group
Al Aghar Group is a non-profit organization that has long been a fertil e ground for the nation’s brightest minds. After its first six-person meeting in 1995, the group recommended that Saudi Arabia exploit gas reserves to develop the northwestern region through local and international investments. This effort would be made possible through public-private partnerships, creating new industries that foster sustainable development, creating value-added products, and achieving a strategic goal of creating joint interests with foreign investors.
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The group’s choice of the northwestern region was driven by broader developmental objectives, the most important of which was developing oil-based industries. The region boasts a wealth of natural resources such as natural gas, which is used as feedstock, and water. There is also the possibility of desalinating water using modern technology and solar, wind, and geothermal energy. The easily accessible area also presents opportunities for transferring knowledge and expertise, and has a huge tourism potential given its beautiful beaches, untouched islands, and archaeological treasures, like Al Ula, Tayma, and Midian. Industrial development and investments were a crucial first step to developing the area. These primary objectives could best be achieved through investing in what we referred to as ‘Pipelines of Peace’ (natural gas, water, and e lectricity), which were needed to feed existing industries in the region and its neighboring areas, and pave the way for exporting goods through the Mediterranean Sea.
In an article I wrote for Okaz published on 26 th May 1998 and entitled Tabuk: Gateway to the 21st and 22nd Century , I noted:
There must be a gateway to the foreseeable future and to what we are building for the coming generations. Through this gateway, we must recognize our positions in the world; how we interact and be part of the world; and the regulations, rules, and concepts we use to engage with it. This rich and strategically positioned region is the future for the coming generations. Its position should not be viewed merely as a gateway to the north but as a gateway to the future. The promise of reconceptualizing Tabuk in this way will allow us to invest in it on behalf of the nation and its citizens. The Saudi government is actively seeking to develop its own model of privatization and utilize methods that align with globalization and its new systems. This necessitates serious thinking about how to develop the northwestern region in novel ways, such as setting up a free zone and promoting a new concept of industries based on natural gas. This will also necessitate coming up with new systems that draw in both domestic and foreign investment to help bring Saudi investment capital back into the Kingdom, and show foreign investors the advantages of doing business here. It is our hope that this major and forward-looking investment opportunity will help Saudize the workforce and secure good jobs for future generations. These efforts will enable us to invest in the natural beauty of the beaches and oases in this region to establish a thriving tourism industry on the Red Sea, from Haql to Al Bad’ to Dhubba to Al Wajh to Umluj, all of which hide amazing treasures waiting to be discovered. The coastline is also dotted with amazing, millennia-old archaeological ruins of buildings and sculptures from past civilizations, more and more of which are being discovered each year.
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