RIYADH, July 6: Saudi Arabia is setting up a new industrial city that could attract investments of up to $30.6 billion and could herald a new era of industrial development in the oil rich kingdom.

Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz laid the cornerstone on Tuesday for this new industrial city on the Red Sea coast and launched a series of multi-billion-dollar ventures, it was reported here on Wednesday.

The new city, to be called “Yanbu 2,” is the twin of the existing Yanbu industrial city and will cover an area of 66 sq km.

Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thanayan, chairman of the government’s Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu, earlier said the commission would spend 12 billion riyals on infrastructure for Yanbu 2, “which is expected to attract investments worth 115 billion riyals.” Yanbu 2, which will host basic, secondary and light industries, is scheduled to be completed by 2019, he told the state SPA news agency on Monday. Saudi Arabia announced a series of mega-projects in May worth tens of billions of dollars.