Right from the horse's mouth :
Neom, May 16, 2022, SPA -- Neom Company, affiliated with Public Investment Fund, stressed that Neom city is a special economic zone that is subject to the sovereignty and regulations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is subject to all rules that are applied to any part of the Kingdom of Saudi...
www.spa.gov.sa
Where will the money to set up SEZs in Pakistan come from ? We are barely getting by on Saudi rollovers and drips from the IMF.
As someone mentioned that “creating more provinces is easier and cheaper than building Economic Zones” is like saying buying five new phones is cheaper than fixing your WiFi.
It sounds confident… until you actually think about it.
Creating a new province isn’t “cheap.”
It means:
• new chief minister
• new cabinet
• new assembly
• new bureaucracy
• new departments
• new buildings
• new budgets
Basically, you’re opening a brand new government franchise.
It’s like opening a new KFC every time you want to fix a chicken recipe.
Meanwhile, Economic Zones are small, focused, high‑speed engines built for business, not politics.
They don’t need 200 politicians, 500 officers, and a parade of VIP cars.
And let’s be honest, Our leadership thinks about the IMF first and the budget later, like a student who checks his friend’s homework before writing his own.
Countries that actually want to grow, Saudi Arabia, UAE, China, Singapore, Estonia, choose EZs, not more provinces.
Creating more provinces is “easy” only in the same way eating 10 burgers is “easy.”
Sure, you can do it… but you’ll regret it immediately.
EZs are cheaper, faster, and actually produce money.
Provinces are expensive, slow, and mostly produce speeches.
So no, creating more provinces isn’t the smart move.
It’s the
“pressing restart on the same broken game” move.