Saudi Arabia signed housing and construction agreements worth 1.9 billion riyals (US$507 million) with Chinese partners including China State Construction Engineering during a visit to China by its housing minister, as Riyadh deepens cooperation with Beijing on urban development projects. Speaking at a signing ceremony on Monday evening in Shenzhen, Minister of Municipalities and Housing Majid Al-Hogail said Saudi Arabia was accelerating housing and urban-development projects under its Vision 2030 strategy. He added that the kingdom expected cooperation with Chinese companies to support the comprehensive economic transformation plan, which was designed to reduce oil dependence and build new growth sectors. Beyond traditional construction, Saudi officials are increasingly looking to Chinese tech firms to support the planning, operation and management of their future cities. While cooperation between the two countries had historically focused on core housing and infrastructure, that partnership was expanding into “smart-city technologies, city management and digital services”, said Mohammad Albuty, CEO of National Housing Company (NHC) – Saudi Arabia’s largest property developer and the investment arm of the housing ministry. To create smarter and more efficient cities, the kingdom has signed cooperation agreements with technology partners including ByteDance, Huawei and Lenovo. According to Albuty, who also heads NHC Group’s technology arm NHC Innovation, the agreement with ByteDance covered the development of strategic artificial intelligence plans, models and solutions aimed at improving digital services and supporting data-driven decision-making. The partnership also includes infrastructure cooperation on data-centre development in NHC’s business districts. A separate memorandum of understanding signed with Huawei focuses on smart-city solutions, urban-management systems and potential collaboration in data-centre investment. Albuty said AI could support the entire urban-development value chain, helping planners optimise city layouts, improve feasibility studies, automate design processes and better estimate construction-material requirements. The technology could also support project execution and ongoing city operations after completion, he said, adding that there was “a lot of opportunity for AI solutions to enhance city management, reduce costs and maximise benefits for citizens”. He added that Saudi Arabia valued its Chinese partners not only for their technology offerings but also for their willingness to support knowledge transfer and localisation efforts. Ultimately, rather than simply constructing new neighbourhoods, Saudi Arabia was seeking to develop digitally connected urban environments capable of supporting economic diversification and improving quality of life, he said. “It is no longer a project between an employer and a contractor,” Albuty said. “It is becoming a partnership between companies in Saudi Arabia and companies in China.”