Speaking at the World Economic Forum at a session titled “Bold New Cities Take the Stage,” Rayan Fayez said that most cities were designed for the needs of past generations and were facing many problems, including sprawling populations.

But the idea behind NEOM was to build according to the needs of the future with a focus on sustainability, he said.

“When you have a region that you are starting from scratch with no legacy, we have the ability to experiment and design how it should be for the future, rather than being anchored to what it was designed for in the past,” he said.

“So everything we’re doing in NEOM today is only on 5 percent of the landmass. The idea behind it is really to build not only a big and impressive real estate development, but also a real economy behind it.”

Fayez said that 95 percent of NEOM would be a nature reserve and that the city would run entirely on renewable energy, from wind and solar resources and the world’s largest hydrogen plant.

He added that although NEOM was a Saudi project, it aimed attract the best global talent to live there.

Speaking about The Line, a smart city under construction in NEOM which is designed to have no cars, streets or carbon emissions, Fayez said it would be built with glass walls to give it a timeless appeal and help it integrate with nature.

“We like to think of The Line as a city within a park,” he said. “Because The Line is actually literally in the middle of nature. And everyone will have access to nature within five minutes.”