Saudi's economic cities under pressure to deliver

By Andrew Hammond

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - An hour's drive north of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast, 8,000 workers toil under the relentless summer sun building what Saudi Arabia hopes will be the key to its social and economic future.

If all goes to plan, the King Abdullah Economic City and three sister developments in Hail, Jizan and Medina will by at least 2020 be vibrant communities in a country with high unemployment and an over-reliance on oil.

Allowing women to drive cars and possibly permitting cinema houses, they may also add to the few bubbles of freedom in Saudi Arabia -- where suffocating gender restrictions have been eased in recent years, to the ire of many religious conservatives.

But while funds are plentiful -- the government says the plan has attracted $35 billion of investment from global players -- many forces including the religious establishment and tensions in nearby Iran and Iraq could hinder the process.

Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Islamic state where the Al Saud family rules in an alliance with clerics who are given control of courts, education, mosques and even a law enforcement agency to maintain their austere vision of Islamic law.

Authorities have tried to reduce some clerical influence since the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities in 2001 -- where 15 of the 19 Arabs who killed some 3,000 people were Saudis -- and the outbreak of al Qaeda campaign against the state in 2003.

In the "economic cities", many expect the clerics to be kept at a distance from social life, the workplace and education.

"Society has changed fundamentally and the measure of it is that the official fatwa (religious edict) of old no longer has the hold it had," said reformist cleric Abdelaziz al-Gasim.

He said social and political taboos had been broken, citing women revealing their faces in some public places and popular participation in 2005 municipal elections, diluting the idea maintained by the clerics of absolute obedience to the ruler.

"A girl or young man who hears a fatwa doesn't just obey, he goes to Google and hears other opinions and discusses," he said.

"VISION OF OUR LEADER"

Although there is not much to see so far, the King Abdullah City will be the jewel in the "economic cities"' crown.

A grand gate bearing the king's image and words "the vision of our leader has embodied our dreams" stands virtually alone in an expanse of desert covering over 388 square km (150 square miles).

But after the gate a long road with banners on lamp posts unveils the magnitude of the ambition -- a hypermodern, eco-friendly mix of port and industrial zone, financial centre, residential quarters, luxury resort and schools and colleges.

An architect's model in a showroom by the sea shows a stunning mix of skyscrapers, beach and resort, with a "media city" thrown in for good measure where publicity posters suggest Britain's BBC for one will maintain offices.  Continued...