Saudi Arabia’s King Salman arrived in the new city of Neom on Wednesday evening, two weeks after he was discharged from hospital. The 84-year-old monarch left King Fahd Specialist Hospital in Riyadh at the end of July after an operation to remove his gall bladder, the Saudi royal court said. He was admitted on July 20 and chaired a cabinet meeting from his hospital room. Video released by the Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday showed King Salman stepping off a flight from Riyadh and taking an escalator to the ground before leaving in a black car. SPA said the king "will spend some time [at Neom] for rest and recuperation", but did not specify how long he would stay. Neom is Saudi Arabia's futuristic new mega project, a $500 billion high-tech city dreamed up as part of the kingdom’s post-oil diversification plan known as Vision 2030. It is in north-western Saudi Arabia and will eventually house areas dedicated to future technologies in 16 sectors including biotech, food, manufacturing and technology. Its contribution to the kingdom’s GDP is projected to reach at least $100 billion by 2030.
