Former MP Wyatt Roy signs up to work on Saudi Arabia’s ‘sci-fi city’

Former Turnbull minister Wyatt Roy has joined the leadership team at Neom, an ambitious and controversial $760 billion project to build a futuristic city from scratch in Saudi Arabia powered entirely by renewable energy.

Neom, which is wholly owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, was launched in 2017 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a bid to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil and to diversify its economy.

Salman’s vision for the megacity includes robots performing security, logistics and caregiving functions as well as more out-there technologies that don’t yet exist, including flying cars and a giant artificial moon.

An artist’s impression of Neom, a city powered entirely by renewable energy.

The project is a key part of a plan from Salman – also known by his initials MBS – to modernise Saudi Arabia’s economy and its reputation. One of its three regions, known as The Line, is designed to have no cars, streets or carbon emissions. The Line will extend for 170 kilometres and all amenities will be available within a five-minute walk, according to Neom’s plans.

“Neom means ‘new future’, and with more than 3600 staff – from 97 countries – already living and working here onsite, it has already become a home for people who dream big and want to be part of building a new economic model for the country and the world,” the company’s website reads.

Former MP Wyatt Roy.

Roy was assistant innovation minister under former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and was one of the architects of the Liberal government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda. Roy was the youngest person ever elected to federal parliament at the age of 20, then at 25, he became the youngest minister in the history of the Commonwealth.

He’s now joining Neom and to help make the project a reality.

“We need a complete rethink to solve today’s most pressing challenges, from climate change and water scarcity to lifestyle, education, mobility, and urban sustainable development. But the world’s response to these and other issues is often too slow because of legacy systems and thinking,” Roy said in a statement.

“The combination of Neom’s scale of ambition with its starting point as a near-blank canvas feels like such a unique opportunity to up that pace. I’ve seen Neom’s internal plans and spent time with its leadership, and I’m both daunted by what we aim to achieve and encouraged by how they want to achieve it.

“I also believe it represents a positive future being built in Saudi Arabia and the wider region, one that younger generations are especially hungry for.”

While Neom won’t be completed for years, the project has already attracted controversy, including claims that an estimated 20,000 people, including members of the Huwaitat tribe, will be forced to relocate to accommodate the city.

After departing politics Roy became managing director for US multi-billion dollar AI outfit Afiniti, and was an executive director of tech lobby group the Tech Council of Australia. Most recently he served as an advisor to local start-ups SunDrive and Vow and as a senior advisor to McKinsey & Company.

“It will harness my policy experience in helping to sow the seeds for Australia’s diversification from a resource-reliant economy to one where tech is the third-largest sector of the economy,” Roy said of his new role.

“If we succeed in our mission, Neom will be a dynamic global hub for innovation. We will build a sustainable new pillar of the economy; we will be home to the best global talent and the businesses of the future, solving the world’s most pressing challenges and creating thousands of new, secure jobs. We will give hope to future generations.”

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.