Dutch gov't recruiting companies to invest in controversial Saudi project

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), is recruiting companies to invest in the controversial Saudi mega-city Neom, Follow the Money (FTM) reports. The project is controversial because the Saudi authorities forced people to relocate to make room for the city’s construction. Several of those who refused were sentenced to death, according to human rights watchdog Al Qst.

Saudi Arabia wants to innovate rapidly based on Vision 2030, a plan by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to diversify the country’s economy and make it less dependent on oil. The RVO first presented the project to the Dutch business community in a webinar in June 2021. Since then, the RVO has been recruiting companies on behalf of the Dutch embassy in Riyadh to contribute to the project.

The mega-city Neom, which will be about the size of Belgium, is high on that agenda. The Saudi government announced the construction of the smart city in 2017. The Neom project is managed by the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi state fund. According to plans that leaked in 2019, the city will cost an estimated 500 billion euros and include a huge artificial moon, flying taxis, robot butlers, and glow-in-the-dark beaches. The project has already attracted many international investors, including the Dutch Boskalis and Van der Hoeven Horticultural Projects.

But the Neom project is also marked by many human rights violations, according to the Saudi human rights organization Al Qst and documents in FTM’s possession. The Huwaitat community has lived in the Tabuk province, where Neom is being built, for generations. They were forced to relocate, and many resisted.

The Saudi authorities arrested multiple members of the Huwaitat community in recent years for resisting their forced relocation. They are accused of criticizing the Saudi kingdom on social media and charged with “disruption of public order” and incitement to commit “terrorist acts that harm the security of the country.” The Saudi kingdom is known for its harsh punishments against citizens who openly criticize the government. In October last year, a Saudi terrorism court sentenced several Huwaitati to death, according to Al Qst.

Cooperation with Saudi Arabia has been a sensitive issue in Dutch politics since journalist and regime critic Jamal Khashoggi got murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2019. The general belief is that the Saudi crown prince sent an assassination squad to murder Khashoggi.

Following the journalist’s horrific death, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance questioned whether they should get involved in the Future Investment Initiative, according to documents FTM got through the Open Government Act. An official advised the Ministries not to attend a conference on the project hosted by the Saudi state fund. Given the number of companies withdrawing from the project, the presence of the Dutch Ministries “seemed unsustainable” partly because of “the broad support of MPs for reduced contacts” with Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi’s murder.

The Netherlands did not send a delegation to the 2019 conference and canceled a trade mission to the country, but the ties with Saudi Arabia have since become warmer again.

Christian Henderson, assistant professor of international relations and Middle East studies at Leiden University, explained. “As a democracy, you cannot have a diplomatic or business relationship with a government that kills, dismembers, and dissolves someone in acid. There was no option but to distance itself from the Saudi government,” he told FTM. “The Netherlands is characterized by a business-first foreign policy. After the murder, many countries reluctantly distanced themselves from Saudi Arabia. So as soon as they could renew the relationship, many did.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told FTM that the Netherlands’ decision to distance itself from Saudi Arabia after Khagossi’s murder did not interrupt “the economic services to the Dutch business community.” RVO wrote to businesses that the embassy in Riyadh has “an extensive network for large projects like Neom” and that “the opportunities are currently being mapped out for other mega projects in the areas of water, food, energy, and tourism.”

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Investment both stress that Neom will be a free trade zone. “Companies and organizations that establish themselves in Neom fall outside the ordinary legislation in the field of taxes, import requirements, labor law, and other business legal legislation,” Foreign Affairs wrote. So “there are many opportunities for Dutch companies and knowledge institutions.”