Improving Transport Project Appraisals
In the Islamic Countries
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9 Results case studies: Saudi Arabia
This chapter presents the results of the case study on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, following
the structure of the conceptual framework as developed in Chapter 2. This case study is based
on a desk research and on interviews with Saudi institutional stakeholders carried out in
December 2018. Details on the interviewed experts are presented in Annex 3.
9.1 Introduction
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a population of approximately 33.4 million people 102 and a
total area of more than 2 million square kilometres, making it the 12th-largest country in the
world. According to the Saudi strategic development plan released in 2016, called Vision 2030103,
the country’s transportation sector shows a need for completing, improving and linking
infrastructures internally and across borders, after large investments were implemented in the
last decades for the construction of ports, railways, roads and airports. The National
Transformation Programme, which is one of the Vision Realisation Programmes put in place to
achieve the goals of the Vision 2030, specifically identifies the need to develop transport
management and planning systems, and highlights the development of public transport in larger
cities as a key area of new investments104.
Similarly, the 2011 National Transportation Strategy105 had previously stated that the
transportation system was in a transition period from a time of massive infrastructure
development to one of a maturing system. At the same time, the Strategy underlined that major
economic trends — such as the changing role of oil in global trade and the evolution of Saudi
economy towards diversification — pointed to a necessary enhancement of transportation
efficiency and connectivity, in order to support the national economy in its response to these
changes106.
To address these challenges, the 2011 Strategy laid out an action programme based on a detailed
analysis of the status quo, divided into six areas107. In the area named Transport Infrastructure
Development, the analysis identified a need for renewing the planning processes of transport
infrastructures and the prioritising of projects. In particular, it was acknowledged that
intermodal connectivity was not sufficiently taken into consideration at the early planning stage.
The development of transport infrastructure was mainly mode-oriented, with relevant
Ministries and authorities drafting their own plans and implementing their projects.
102 Source: General Authority for Statistics.
103 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2016. Vision 2030.
104 The National Transformation Programme sets a target of 16 cities for which comprehensive public transportation plans
shall be under development by 2020, against an initial baseline of 11.
105 Ministry of Transport, 2011. National Transportation Strategy.
106 To this end, the drivers of the 2011 Strategy included among others: establishing minimum performance standards for
transport service providers; relating investment decisions to economic feasibility; rationalising pricing and cost
recovery; facilitating private sector involvement in the transport sector. More specifically on the issue of privatisation,
the National Transformation Programme sets ambitious targets to be reached by 2020: the private sector contribution
for developing and operating railway projects shall amount to 50% (from a baseline of 5%), while for ports projects it
shall amount to 70% (baseline: 30%).
107 The six areas were: a) Transport Infrastructure Development; b) Freight Transportation and Trade Facilitation; c)
Passenger Transportation; d) Hajj Transportation; e) Transport Safety; f) Environmental Protection.