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| A National Spatial Strategy for Saudi Arabia |
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On 28/08/2000 the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia approved a National Spatial Strategy. This strategy outlines the future desired settlement pattern and spatial distribution of population and supporting services and economic activities to promote balanced development on the national space. The strategy was formulated in house by MOMRA and with technical assistance from the United Nations. The need for such strategy was heightened by the apparent widening of the disparity gap in levels of development between growing and lagging regions and polarization of urban population in few large cities due to fast national development and accelerated urban transition during the 1970 2000 period. The government sought that unless past trends in polarization of urban population and interregional disparities are rectified, national urban development can not be sustained.
The strategy addressed a wide range of future challenges that Saudi Arabia is expected to face in the first half of the 21st century. Among these challenges:
How to reduce inter regional disparities in levels of development while ensuring economic efficiency and social equity.
How to promote a hierarchy of a spatially balanced urban system capable, not only of accommodating expected increase in population, but also generating the required jobs. This is a serious challenge in light of the fact that Saudi Arabia's total population is expected to more than double in the next twenty years, thus reaching 40.7 million by the year 2025 of which 31 million will be living in cities and working age population is expected to reach 16 million.
How to minimize the adverse consequences of continuous polarization of population in the major cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Metropolitan Dammam.
How to strike a balance between sustained urban development and protection of the environment..
In addressing these challenges, the strategy called for pursuing a wide range of policies that include:
Ensuring the efficient utilization of infrastructure and public utilities already in place through compact urban development and improved urban fabric.
Intensifying the efforts to diversify the economic base of lagging regions by fostering the development of selected urban settlements to act as growth centers through the introduction of new functions such as universities, specialized hospitals, industrial estates, tourism facilities and the provision of a wide range of incentives for private sector investments.
Inducing development at the scale of development corridors by targeting selected medium and small cities and village clusters as nodal growth points to spread development in surrounding rural areas, thus reducing the dominance of large cities and provincial capitals on their adjacent areas.
Classifying medium and small cities with growth potential into regional and local growth centers. This classification not only facilitates the coordination of future development efforts between executing agencies and the private sector investors but also speeds up the promotion of a more balanced hierarchy of the urban system. By up grading the infrastructure and the promotion of new investment opportunities within the identified growth centers they can definitely contribute considerably to the improvement of the overall population absorptive capacity of the urban system and gradually reduce out migration from small cities and rural areas toward large cities.
The strategy puts great emphasis on maximizing the utilization of the comparative advantage of large cities in spreading development to ward adjacent lagging areas. At present, substantial advantages of large cities include highly specialized services and diversified economic base.
As large cities in Saudi Arabia have national and international functions, the strategy calls for promoting investments in activities that support large cities functions and curtailing any investments that may cause further adverse impacts on these cities environment.
The Council of Ministers approval decree of the strategy calls for taking the strategy into consideration in the formulation of the Five Year National Development Plans. Implementing the strategy calls for:
The use of government land allocation policies as a tool for promoting a spatially balanced development, especially with respect to the allocation of land for new industrial parks, universities, medical institutions, airports, tourist sites.
Fostering the role of regional planning.
Curtailing urban sprawl and improving urban management through the formulation of city's long term structural plans.
Identifying development projects to be executed within each of the identified growth centers and ranking these projects according to their priorities.
Phasing the implementation of proposed development projects within the sub sequent Five Year Development Plans.
Upgrading local capacities and modernizing municipal functions.
In summary, the National Spatial Strategy established a legal frame for spatial development at the national level. Its policies are consistent with the national development goals of economic efficiency and social equity. While economic efficiency is achieved through expanding opportunities for economic growth and diversification, social equity is achieved through gradual development from growing to lagging regions.
For further details:
Contact Name: Dr. Abdulaziz AlKhedheiri Assistant Deputy Minister for Town Planning Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs Riyadh Saudi Arabia
Tel: 00966 1 4563554 e mail: alkhedheiri@hotmail.com
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العربية
