The idea of developing old and historical neighborhoods in large cities in the Kingdom is no longer a luxury or a kind of luxury that needs to be postponed, but has become an urgent necessity and part of the state plans, so the competent authorities have carried out many removals in informal neighborhoods to replace them with modern neighborhoods suitable for diversified and long-term investment, which reassures the investor's mind.
The nature of planning in large cities needs balance and economic intervention to address migration towards attractive neighborhoods to pump money, which has become a great pressure on them and their services; therefore, the importance of improving the visual scene in popular neighborhoods by finding strategic plans in changing the urban pattern by building modern residential complexes, hotels, parks, gardens, parks, various markets and malls, in addition to educational and health service facilities.
The old neighborhoods represent an important aspect of the Kingdom's history and the memories of citizens; therefore, they will find ample official attention, especially since a recent study entitled «Urban Technology» talked about huge opportunities for the growth of smart cities in Saudi Arabia, and revealed an investment of about 4 billion dollars to develop its digital infrastructure, within the objectives of Vision 2030.
Old neighborhoods represent an important part of the Kingdom's history and memories of citizens.
In the same context, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, regulation of urban enablers and incentives for informal neighborhoods, contains a package of facilities, most notably exempting the developer from municipal services fees and real estate transaction tax, and coordinating with the Ministry of Finance to develop exemption controls. This shows that the authorities are oriented towards developing these opportunities.
The private sector must also take official initiatives into account in planning its projects, so that they are in line with the leadership's vision of upgrading and competing cities, such as becoming Riyadh becoming one of the top 10 economic cities in the world, and the adoption of the Smart Cities Strategy, which aims to transform municipal and residential sector services into "smart services".
This is reinforced by the adoption of the Smart Cities Strategy, which aims to transform municipal and residential sector services into "smart services".
Therefore, we suggest organizing a special forum that brings together the competent authorities and partners to discuss how to transform old and random neighborhoods into residential, investment and cultural attractions, now that all the ingredients for success are available.
