JEDDAH — The western province of Saudi Arabia is a mine of wealth when it comes to commercial and investment projects, particularly the city of Makkah AlMukkaramah. While Jeddah upholds its status as the strongest threshold for commercial exchange — thanks to its port, Makkah unveils limitless potential for a new knowledge-based economy, next to the vector of religious tourism that is open all year long.

Umm AlQura is one of the universities which believes and supports this transformation and has launched last April 10 the state-of-the-art campus of “Wadi Makkah”, which can also be referred to as the “Silicon Valley of Makkah”. It is intended to become the headquarters to eight start-up companies (as previously announced in November 2015) in addition to international companies. Such a project corresponds to the needs of the Saudi economy to diversify and respond to the needs of a growing entrepreneurial segment and at the same time accommodate a changing market which can no longer rel…

Knowledge-based economy key to steady Saudi growth — Saudi Gazette