# Kuwait's $132 Billion Silk City



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*INTERVIEW-Kuwait plans $132 bln 'Silk City' in the desert *

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - Fuelled by soaring oil prices, Kuwait has ambitious plans to invest $132 billion building a model city in its northern desert, complete with rail links to the rest of the Middle East, central Asia and China.

The high-concept project may seem outlandish on one level, but Kuwait's leadership is committed to the plan, according to one of the project's originators, who argues that it could bring unprecedented political and economic gains to the region, including establishing better business ties with Israel.

"We are not dreamers at all when we talk about investing $132 billion," said Sami Alfaraj, president of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies and an adviser to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of six mostly oil-rich Gulf states.

"We're thinking on a different plane because we cannot afford to think like everyone else. We're thinking about something that might seem unimaginable," he told Reuters in London, where he is holding meetings on the project.

"We're going to outmanoeuvre everybody who is going to remain in the old mode of thinking about economic prospects."

London-based architects Eric R. Kuhne & Associates have drawn up designs for the project, to be called Madinat al-Hareer or Silk City, which would include a 1,000-metre high skyscraper.

The city, set for completion in 2023, would be home to around 700,000 people and linked to the capital, Kuwait City, by a dedicated mega-causeway. But more importantly, it would also be linked to the rest of the Middle East, Europe and far-flung corners of the world by rail, principally as a trade route.

"It is the official policy of the state of Kuwait to build this city and to link it to Damascus, to Baghdad, to Iran and all the way beyond. This is where we want to put our money. We want to build railways all the way to China," said Alfaraj, who also advises the government on security issues.

"We hold the keys to a lot of things, but it's not just money. For small states like us, the important thing is not oil, it's not money, it's influence. If we do not use oil or money to increase our influence in a peaceful way, we have no existence."

TIES WITH ISRAEL

While Silk City and its rail links -- dubbed a modern-day Silk Road -- may seem dreamy to the point of unimaginable, Alfaraj says talks have been taking place with Iran since 1998 and with other countries on an intermittent basis for years.

At a time when Kuwait, with the world's fifth-largest proven oil reserves and among the top oil exporters, is sitting on massive petroleum profits, the funding is already in place.

But aside from that, it is the regional economic and social gains, including potentially closer, deeper ties with Israel and the Palestinians, that Alfaraj emphasises.

Most Muslim states won't do business with Israel, but Alfaraj says such thinking is now outdated, particularly as Israel forges ahead as a global technology leader.

"People in the Gulf are smart enough to understand the impact of technology on their development and they know that the technology is in Israel," he said.

Russia and China have signed common trade zone agreements with the GCC -- which groups Kuwait, Saudia Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar -- and such closer ties with Israel, among others, are not out of the question.

"If you look at the taboos of yesterday, they don't exist," he said. But Gulf Arab countries are unlikely to lift a boycott of Israel unless a comprehensive peace deal is reached between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Such a peace deal remains some way off, but Alfaraj suggested attitudes were changing."

"The people on the surface still listen to Al Jazeera, still listen to the same jargon, but you have to think differently because things are different," Alfaraj said. "We are erecting a different Kuwait."


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

Sounds massively impressive. 

Found this render from www.cityofsilk.tv (which is a random forum)









I think that they outdid even Dubai on this one. The main tower planned is much taller than the Burj. It would be crazy if this was built. They literally are building a new huge city out of nothing.


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## Wey (Jul 8, 2008)

Wow, an awesome project!
So it is already confirmed or is still in negotiation??


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

Are the trying to flood parts of the desert, or will it be located at a shore? Or where comes all the water in the picture?


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## The other Dude (Jan 30, 2008)

why do they always put big things in the middle of a city? there will be bigger things to come. and then it looks odd. better put a park in the centre. free green space will be rare soon in most cities. 
but i still like it ;-)


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## Shezan (Jun 21, 2007)

OMG...great...!


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## Oaronuviss (Dec 11, 2002)

So Kuwait is the richest nation in the world now?
Awesome ambition, but... umm... if you have an excess of that much money which VERY LITTLE countries have, maybe that can go to something worth while, like solving one of the world's many dilemas???


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## PD (Jun 11, 2007)

Oaronuviss said:


> So Kuwait is the richest nation in the world now?
> Awesome ambition, but... umm... if you have an excess of that much money which VERY LITTLE countries have, maybe that can go to something worth while, like solving one of the world's many dilemas???


What a overly simplistic statement.

I think these Gulf Nations (kuwait, UAE) have a responsibility to create the perpetuation of wealth once the oil dries up.

Why dont you petition some of the money going toward projects in Toronto to be put toward solving the worlds dilemas?


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

Oaronuviss said:


> So Kuwait is the richest nation in the world now?
> Awesome ambition, but... umm... if you have an excess of that much money which VERY LITTLE countries have, maybe that can go to something worth while, like solving one of the world's many dilemas???


i suppose you would rather them buy a century's worth of maple syrup from Canada, and then survive off that for 100 years after the oil runs out, and then starve to death.

but i would rather them build something like this and create jobs for the millions of people aroudn the world and unemployed, uneducated youth in the region


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## snow is red (May 7, 2007)

So much money 

Speechless.


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## The Cebuano Exultor (Aug 1, 2005)

*@ luv2bebrown*

^^ But don't you think there'd be a glut of masterplanned "cities" among the GCC member-states. I mean, every GCC state except Oman and Bahrain are planning uber-sized masterplan communities from scratch.

I have a feeling that this project would be forced to scale-back given the fact that Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha are also vying for the same vision. Add to the fact that Saudi Arabia is also building six "economic cities" of its own.

I can't even begin to imagine the amount of office space that Dubai, perse, will have by the time The Waterfront, The Palm Jumeirah, The Palm Jebel Ali, The Palm Deira, The Universe, Dubai World Central, DubaiLand, and Business Bay will have been fully built-out. Add to the fact that Abu Dhabi, a city an hours drive away, is also building uber-projects of its own (i.e., Yaas Island). Now, the amount of new real estate property gets really if insane if I also include Qatar's and this project [City of Silk].

I mean, c'mon now. Let's not be too naive. You have to agree that this is a tad too much. Heck, Hong Kong and Singapore experienced four-decades of blistering GDP growth and their current infrastructure still pales in comparison to what these four GCC states are planning to have within the next 22 years!

That's just my two-cents worth.

Please do reply. Thanks. :cheers:


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

The money is not so great if you compare it to other places, its not exorbitant and its not unheard of. Paris, NYC and London are investing similar amounts - theres something like $250 billion to be invested into London by 2015 on public projects, (and thats not including private projects such as the 40 skyscrapers on the cards). However to build it all in one go on one project is amazing, an entire city from scratch, and its definitely an investment rather than relying on oil supplies.


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## Harkeb (Oct 12, 2004)

This is beyond words. These countries have got to much money to waste. Cant' they invest it somewhere else, and build up the rest of the planet? Do they really need these overkill projects?


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

The Cebuano Exultor said:


> ^^ But don't you think there'd be a glut of masterplanned "cities" among the GCC member-states. I mean, every GCC state except Oman and Bahrain are planning uber-sized masterplan communities from scratch.
> 
> I have a feeling that this project would be forced to scale-back given the fact that Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha are also vying for the same vision. Add to the fact that Saudi Arabia is also building six "economic cities" of its own.
> 
> ...


well these "economic" cities are modern day concepts. you cannot consider them to be cities under the traditional sense. think of them as something of a purpose-built multi product factory. 

lets look at a single product brazilian factory: a company builds a factory and uses the local population as employees. in the "economic cities" though, they will be tapping the GLOBAL population to cater to their workforce needs. also these economic cities will be creating multiple products that serve the global, not only local, communities in a much bigger scale that has been seen. you think 6 economic cities are too much because you feel there isnt enough demand for their combined output. but when u think that the entire WORLD would be using products from these cities, then they become much more viable.

the global economy today is infinitely more globalized and bigger than it was in the days of singapore and hong kong so there is increased levels of outsourcing as countries seek to take advantage of their competitive advantages. in the GCCs case, cheap energy is one of its many advantages. zero tax liability is another. its location as the crossroads of 3 continents is one more.

i dont know what industries will be operating out of these economic cities but lets look at car manufacturing as an example. automobiles have become very expensive to produce in America. so the long term trend is that automobile production will move to other countries that can produce cars more cheaply. car manufacturing could be moved to places like these economic cities - jobs will be created for various people aroudn the world (since car production keeps increasing), but american car makers will lose their jobs. It is up to the Americans to replace their car manufacturing industry with an alternate industy - one they can do better than other countries.

so altogether, (not saying these are the companies goign to be in the cities) imagine if Boeing, Toyota, Microsoft, Aluminium Corp of China, Mittal Steel, Some ship building company, an Airport, an Airline, shipping companies etc all established or relocated their production to these cities to save costs and service the industries operating out of these cities. that would be how the economic cities are expected to thrive.

the world is becoming a single community, where each country becomes a specialized zone/neighbourhood. likewise, each neighbourhood will have different levels of wealth just like how you would see in a single city. 

crazy scenario: in 100 years, you might find a region like Europe completely uncompetitive in ANY kind of manufacturing and have a huge chunk of europe providing only financial services to the WORLD, whereas Japan might build superadvanced robots which can manufacture products much more cheaply than anywhere else and become the manufacturing center of the world. america might be the only producer of computer software, and S. America might become the world's agricultural center. with improved communications and transportations alongside international legal and regulatory frameworks, ther wont be any need for a services company to have local operations in a certain country to service their clients.

so bottom line i think these economic cities are being built in anticipation of the ever increasing level of globalization.

would that make the world a nice place to live in or a soulless global factory? IMO it would probably suck but in terms of production, each area of the world specializing in certain products is the most efficient way to go. since as humans though, we want some kind of enjoyment of life, we would never allow regions to specialize to that extent, but at least to some extent, you might probably see more of these economic cities/zones being built around the world.


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## luci203 (Apr 28, 2008)

Harkeb said:


> This is beyond words. These countries have got to much money to waste. Cant' they invest it somewhere else, and build up the rest of the planet? Do they really need these overkill projects?


Well, this is like: "Rich people have so much money to waste, Do they really need overkill estates? whith money ONE rich family "throw" away each day, they could feed an entire village in Africa". This is our world... hno:


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## Oaronuviss (Dec 11, 2002)

PD said:


> What a overly simplistic statement.
> 
> I think these Gulf Nations (kuwait, UAE) have a responsibility to create the perpetuation of wealth once the oil dries up.
> 
> Why dont you petition some of the money going toward projects in Toronto to be put toward solving the worlds dilemas?


A responsibility involving that much money? Distribute it back to the population, I'm sure they can all use a large chunk of money!?!!?!?

Toronto spends much less than that in a lifetime.


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## Oaronuviss (Dec 11, 2002)

luv2bebrown said:


> i suppose you would rather them buy a century's worth of maple syrup from Canada, and then survive off that for 100 years after the oil runs out, and then starve to death.
> 
> but i would rather them build something like this and create jobs for the millions of people aroudn the world and unemployed, uneducated youth in the region


Ignorant.

Invest in the cities already there and that's as far as it should go.
An entire random city poping up with no history or true motive... it's odd and glutenous. :bash:


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Quite a lot of such projects in the region as they try to diversify away from oil. Not sure how this planned city will turn out, but there have been successful cases before.


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## Æsahættr (Jul 9, 2004)

hkskyline said:


> Quite a lot of such projects in the region as they try to diversify away from oil. Not sure how this planned city will turn out, but there have been successful cases before.


Where? A whole large city like that?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

sojourner truth ™;23550300 said:


> Where? A whole large city like that?


I picked up another one in Saudi Arabia recently, and basically what's happening in Dubai is a huge planned city project (Palm, the World).


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

Epi said:


> It's a bit crazy how all the Gulf cities are spending so much money on building these massive cities, *but yet by most measures, are spending far, far, far less on upgrading their own citizenry for the 21st century. Perhaps spending the money to stimulate local universities and local technological and social progress is better than just building big cities and hoping things will work out.*
> 
> Without the human capital, I* really don't see why large corporations would relocate to these places as there are only so many foreigners who actually want to move to such places long-term *(instead of the great many other cities in the world that already exist and are in much more liberal social climates).


A) do you really think they arent doing anything to stimulate local universities?

B) true... there are only so many foreigners who'd want to move to such places long term. but several million is all they'd need. its not like they need 100 million. maybe just 15-20 million more over the next 25 years.


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## HindenPeter (Aug 10, 2008)

wow this looks bloody amazing


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

This is not an exorbitant amount. London, NYC, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing are all spending similar amounts. London has $250 billion on public projects alone (not including private investment such as 40 new skyscrapers). Add up all the costs of planned projects on large cities and it would add up, believe me.


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## Oaronuviss (Dec 11, 2002)

luv2bebrown said:


> oaronuviss you've been on SSC for too long to be making comments like that.
> SURELY you've done a little bit of research on the gulf boom to find out what its all about. in case you havent... in a nutshell - oil is running out. governments realize they cannot keep giving out handouts from petrodollars (as you suggest they continue doing) because eventually the oil will run out. obviously, they need to reinvest those petrodollars into a SUSTAINABLE economy. selling oil and using that money to buy sh*t is NOT sustainable.
> 
> the government could give $130 billion back to the people - but without a concerted effort, most of that many would go into buying ridiculous unnecessary sh*t. so it would stimulate the german economy (BMWs), the canadian economy (Maple Syrup), and the Italian economy (Ferraris) but it wouldnt help the Kuwaiti economy.
> ...



So, let's say they build this dream city, are they going to,

A) Destroy the old ones and relocate the population to the new city?

B) Assume millions of people will spill into the country because we all know EVERYONE wants to live in Middle East at this moment in time.

C) Proclaim pre-marital sex is no longer 'wrong' and hope everyone has 20 children per parent, and pray they age extremly quickly

OR

D) Pray that millions of people appear out of thin air?

hno: :bash: :nuts: :lol: 


Idea: Very cool
Money sense: Very un-wise
Appeal: Fair at best
Fesability at this point in time: about 30% (I never said it was impossible)
Time frame: Agony

And since you have all the answers on SSC, I want to hear every last one of them.


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## Oaronuviss (Dec 11, 2002)

P.S. I mis-calculated the results if the Kuwaiti government redistributed it back to the populace. It would be $58,831.00/per any human living there. 

I realize it isn't the best idea to just give people a chunk of money that big... there's simply better ways to use it. Period.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

the spliff fairy said:


> This is not an exorbitant amount. London, NYC, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing are all spending similar amounts. London has $250 billion on public projects alone (not including private investment such as 40 new skyscrapers). Add up all the costs of planned projects on large cities and it would add up, believe me.


Maybe, but are London, Paris, or NYC building a totally new city from the ground up? 
Unless I'm missing something big, I don't believe so...

Don't know about the Chinese cities.


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## Whiteeclipse (Mar 31, 2005)

They need to build that city fast, this will create more value for the world economy and provide jobs.


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

Oaronuviss said:


> So, let's say they build this dream city, are they going to,
> 
> A) Destroy the old ones and relocate the population to the new city?
> 
> ...


to answer your question
A) keep the old ones. build this one for the growing population. the global population is growing in case you didnt know.
B) no need to assume. its already reality. the millions of people moving to the middle east need places to work and live.
C) no need again. even with extramarital sex being "wrong" GCC populations are growing rapidly
D) no. pray that you can provide jobs and homes for the people who ARE appearing out of thin air.

Idea: cool new concept
Money sense: very wise
Appeal: too functional. will appeal enough to meet its goals but essentially it just just a largely functional-only production zone of Kuwait City rather than a traditional independent city
Feasability: 75+%. nothing is ever for certain.
Time Frame: Agonizingly appropriate. The zone will be constructed as the Kuwait and the global economy grows.

same thing with Dubai World Central. idiot reporters state "its too much for a city of only 1.5 million." the entire thing will be built in phases over 10-15 years or so. do you think the population is going to remain at 1.5 million for the next 15-25 years?


Oaronuviss again im really surprised. your understanding of the middle eastern economic boom is similar to that of a fresh SSC noob. arent u aware of the massive population growth in the region? arent u aware of the millions of expats who are moving to the GCC? thats some pretty basic information. even USA Today readers would know that information.


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

Whiteeclipse said:


> They need to build that city fast, this will create more value for the world economy and provide jobs.


WOW. PRECISELY.
it makes me happy that there are people on SSC who understand this.
there are millions of unemployed youth in the middle east ALONE. tons of poor and underserved populations throughout the world which the GCC will begin to service. this economic city is aimed squarely at serving the GLOBAL economy which we all know in the long run will grow tremendously.


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## Qatar Son 333 (May 10, 2006)

Oaronuviss said:


> So, let's say they build this dream city, are they going to,
> 
> A) Destroy the old ones and relocate the population to the new city?
> 
> ...



B is like the best answer !!! yes there is a huge amount of people wanting to move to the middle east.... AKA Dubai, Doha and more... for example currently in Doha the expat population is 75% while the Qatari's are only 25% !!!!


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## AltinD (Jul 15, 2004)

10ROT said:


> Maybe, but are London, Paris, or NYC building a totally new city from the ground up?
> Unless I'm missing something big, I don't believe so...
> 
> Don't know about the Chinese cities.


No, they build *suburbs *from ground up. :nuts:


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

Dubai is 90% foreign born now, the worlds highest amount. The other booming cities in the region are also seeing a huge influx, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Bahrain, Doha. Even the much more conservative Saudi cities are experiencing a similar sea change from Riyadh to Jeddah to Meccah. Tourism to the whole Middle East region is growing hugely, Dubai is set to become the worlds second biggest destination for overseas visitors after London by 2015, soon followed by Istanbul.


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## Qatar Son 333 (May 10, 2006)

wait i though Paris was ruling the charts ! any who.... your right


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## BlackPower (Jan 17, 2015)

Project is going :cheers:



remy59660 said:


> Madinat al-Hareer (Arabic: مدينة الحرير‎, meaning "Silk City"), is a proposed 250 km2 (62,000-acre) planned urban area in Subiya, northern Kuwait. Upon construction, it would include the Burj Mubarak al-Kabir, a nature reservation of 2 square kilometres, a duty-free area which will be beside a new airport, in addition to a large business center, conference areas, environmental areas, athletic areas, and areas that concentrate on media, health, education, and industry. The City of Silk will also include numerous tourist attractions, hotels, spas, and public gardens. The city will be built in individual phases with total completion within twenty-five years. The development will cost an estimated 25 billion Kuwaiti Dinars (94 billion USD). In May 2014, the Silk City project was on hold.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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