King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), the world’s largest privately-funded new city, said it had awarded contracts worth SR1.6 billion ($426 million) for its upcoming residential and industrial development projects in 2016.

Located on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, KAEC covers an area of 181 sq km, approximately the size of Washington DC. It comprises King Abdullah Port, the Coastal Communities residential districts, the Haramain Railway district and the Industrial Valley.

KAEC is being developed by Emaar, The Economic City, a publicly listed Saudi joint-stock company established in 2006.

Of the contracts awarded, 30 per cent of them were for developments in the Industrial Valley and another 40 per cent were for residential developments, said a statement from the Saudi company.

The announced deals do not include contracts and agreements with companies that have investments in KAEC.

About 88 per cent of these agreements have been signed with Saudi-based companies, said a top official.

“KAEC is continuing to grow and our development plan remains firmly on track,” remarked Fahd Al Rasheed, the group chief executive and managing director of KAEC.

"Our status as a privately-funded development has been an important factor in our performance and our strong cash position has allowed us to continue to invest steadily across our activities toward achieving KAEC sustainable development," he stated.

Al Rasheed pointed out that the value of projects under implementation in KAEC was worth over SR6 billion ($1.6 billion) and does not include the implementation of contracts in the King Abdullah Port and the industrial and commercial companies’ investments in the city.

KAEC has registered more than 2,700 vendors to work on the development of the city since 2007 and most of the vendors are national companies and organisations, he added.-TradeArabia News Service