One of the many stories of the Saudi Arabian development market
in the last three years has been the rapid acceleration in social
and urban infrastructure procured on a PPP basis. The Kingdom has
embraced PPP not simply (as often assumed) to alleviate the
pressure on government balance sheets but for reasons of cost
efficiency and economic diversification.
Saudi Arabia is working particularly hard to establish itself as
a major global transport and logistics hub. The country has
established a new airline, Riyadh Air, and the ecosystem of
transport projects includes the Riyadh metro, seaports, airports,
land ports and railway projects.
Somewhere within that ecosystem are the Kingdom's ambitious
plans to revolutionize the country's bus networks. The King
Salman Center for Local Governance recommends that the Kingdom
should develop more Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems as a lower cost
and lower risk means to implement mass transport, and one which
aligns with the 2030