The development body is to increase the size of the industrial cities at Dammam by 2 square kilometres and at Medina by 1 sq km.

Sipa, also known as the Saudi Organisation for Industrial Estates & Technology Zones (Soietz), currently supervises 19 industrial cities across the kingdom.

They are located in various cities including Riyadh, Jeddah, Qassim, Al-Ahsa and Tabuk.

In October, the director general of Sipa, Tawfig al-Rabiah, announced that the organisation was planning to attract an estimated SR10bn ($2.7bn) in investment to Jizan Industrial City (MEED 27:10:08).