Jeddah Economic City, the organisation behind the development of Kingdom City in Saudi Arabia, remains in discussion with banks over how best to raise future funding.

The development is a real estate project currently under construction north of the city of Jeddah. It will stretch 5.3 million square metres and will feature the Kingdom Tower, set to be the tallest building in the world.

Speaking at MEED’s Project and Infrastructure Finance conference in Bahrain, Peter Jodlowski, chief financial officer, at Jeddah Economic City, said: “We are well financed but we are starting to look at other financing means [which could] include conventional and Islamic finance, export credit agency (ECA)-backed financing and real estate investment funds.”

He added he would like to see more ECA involvement in a “broader field” across Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure market.

“We see how they operated in the Saudi Aramco (Sadara) deal. They are a huge source of funding. If Saudi entities, government or independent, can access ECA cash, we will see even more rapid development,” he said.

He said the company would be looking to raise at least one billion dollars in short-term funding in the coming years.