Saudi Arabia plans to increase the size of rail

Riyadh : The Saudi Arabian investment minister said on Wednesday that the country plans to add 8,000 kilometres of new rail track to its transportation network.

In Riyadh, Khalid Al-Falih announced that new rail lines would cross the Kingdom and join the existing network.

As of today, there is a total of 3,650 kilometres of track on the Saudi rail network, arranged over three lines.

In addition to feeder lines to the mineral mining operations in the north of the Kingdom, the 2,750 km North-South line connects Riyadh to the border with Jordan.

In addition to the Riyadh-Dammam track that runs 450 km from the capital to the east coast, the Haramain highspeed rail line runs 450 km to connect the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah to the north through King Abdullah International Airport in Jeddah and King Abdullah Economic City in Jeddah.

Moreover, Al-Falih confirmed that his ministry is drafting a new law on investment that will address the needs of both domestic investors and foreigners.

He expects the law to be enacted this year, "hopefully soon," Al-Falih said and would add to the Kingdom's regulatory and judicial reforms.

In October, Saudi Arabia announced that 44 international companies had been licensed to open regional offices in Riyadh. It gives foreign companies until the end of 2023 to establish headquarters in the Kingdom or risk losing government contracts.

The Future Minerals Forum is an annual conference that brings together mining leaders from more than 30 countries.

During the forum, Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said that the transition to clean energy from fossil fuels was complex. The world had to adapt itself to maintain energy security.

"Energy transition needs to be thought through carefully; Prince Abdulaziz told reporters. "It may turn out to be a leap into the future and an unknown future. We should not forfeit energy security for the sake of publicity stunts."

Prince Abdulaziz also said the Kingdom would develop and manufacture uranium. "Let me be very specific about it, we have an enormous amount of uranium resources that we would like to exploit, and we will be doing that transparently with the involvement of partners."

Nevertheless, he said Saudi Arabia was set to publish its energy strategy soon, and it was well positioned to become the cheapest source of "green" hydrogen.