A memorandum was signed by the mayor, Luís Filipe Menezes, and the representative of the Eastern Province Council of Saudi Arabia, Fahad Alabdulsalam, establishing a three-year strategic partnership focused on urban planning, mobility, digital transformation, municipal security and crisis management, among other areas, according to Idealista News.
Speaking to Lusa, Luís Filipe Menezes explained that the most ambitious project involves creating a 'centrality' within the municipality: "We want to have a large urban area with three aspects: housing, services - where we aspire to have a 'technopark' [technology park] - and construction. It will be the great solution to get people to live in the interior, and foreign investment will be essential there," he said. Menezes also highlighted the "surprising interest" shown by Saudi investors in the housing sector.
To make this goal feasible and increase the interest of Saudi Arabian investors, the municipality is willing to grant public land, in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, which aims to speed up the implementation of the project in view of the strictly public financing deadlines.
The partnership also includes the creation of an eight-hectare urban entertainment park, inspired by the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. According to Menezes, the project envisages a space dedicated to outdoor culture, catering and leisure associated with new technologies and artificial intelligence.
"We have well-located land, in fact we have two options. Our preference is for it to be a very urban space, accessible on foot or by metro," said the mayor.
According to the signed memorandum, cooperation between Gaia and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia also includes the exchange of best practices in the areas of digital transformation, waste management and heritage preservation. The document does not provide for immediate financial obligations, functioning as a framework for cooperation in good faith aimed at facilitating the licensing and implementation of investments considered strategic for the municipality.
