Saudi Arabia, France to ink deal for multi-billion dollar museum

Saudi Arabia and France will sign a ten-year agreement tomorrow, Apr. 10 to develop the Al-Ula region into a cultural tourism destination during Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s visit to Paris, Reuters reported on Monday, citing unnamed officials with knowledge of the matter.

Under the renewable contract, France will set up and run an agency, which will be financed by Saudi Arabia to work on archaeological excavations, developing museum concepts and masterplanning eventually moving towards the awarding of lucrative infrastructure and hotel projects. 

While Prince Mohammed is not expected to sign mega contracts during his three-day trip, the project aims to give France an opportunity to use its expertise in tourism to gain a foothold in a project likely to cost billions of dollars to develop, the officials added. 

"Al-Ula stands as an open air canvas and it's up to us to draw something using France's excellence," Amr al-Madani, chief executive of the Royal Commission for Al-Ula, said. 

Madani declined to give more details on the deal value, but said the objective was to attract between 1.5-2.5 million tourists a year. 

The deal comes as part of the kingdom's efforts to develop new industries to diversify its income resources away from oil. 

The Saudi economic reforms aim to lift total tourism spending in the country - by local citizens as well as foreigners - to $46.6 billion in 2020 from $27.9 billion in 2015.