（続）前進している孫正義

別にサウジアラビアにこだわるつもりはないのですがEconomistを読んでいたら孫正義が登場していたので。。。

 

 

 

NEOM,a $500bn dream in the desert

Saudi Arabia launches a futuristic economic zone

The crown prince’s plans get ever grander

 

Sceptics can point to plans elsewhere for “smart cities” (such as Masdar in the United Arab Emirates) that are launched with much fanfare but fail to live up to the hype. In Saudi Arabia itself, the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh is a $10bn white camel. Will NEOM be different?

 

It starts, at least, with the credibility that comes from its big-name supporters. At the launch were an ebullient Masayoshi Son, the Japanese head of a $100bn “Vision Fund”, and Stephen Schwarzman, head of Blackstone, a private-equity giant. Klaus Kleinfeld, a former boss of Arconic, Alcoa and Siemens, is to be NEOM’s chief executive. The prospect of creating a dynamic zone without the barriers to enterprise found elsewhere in the country has such people genuinely enthused.

 

雑誌版のタイトルはSaudi Arabia’s reforms There’s no place like NEOMだったのですが、これはThere's no place like home（我が家にまさる所なし）のバリエーションですね。ただEconomistのことですから、「NEOMみたいなところはない」と計画の実現不可能性を皮肉っているかもしれません。

There's no place like homeのようなことわざ表現は専用の辞書で調べた方が詳しいようで古代ギリシアのヘシオドスまでさかのぼれることがわかります。

 

  

 （アメリカンヘリテージ）

There's no place like home

Home is the best of all places. This saying comes from the song “Home, Sweet Home.”

 

（The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs）

there's no place like home

Home is the place where people feel most comfortable and contented; often said by somebody on his or her return: “ They . . . were only come now to stay a few weeks on account of their father's death; but they did so like Marsh End and Morton, and all these moors and hills about. They had been in London, and many other grand towns; but they always said there was no place like home” (Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, 1847). The proverb is of ancient origin, occurring in the Greek poet Hesiod's Works and Days (eighth century B.C.) It was popularized in the song “Home, Sweet Home” (1823) by J. H. Payne: “'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,/Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”

 

Bloombergの記事がもっと詳しくNEOMの計画について分析しています。アルコールは依然として禁止するようですので世界中から人が集まるのか心配です。。。

 

Sun, Sea and Robots: Saudi Arabia’s Sci-FiCity in the Desert

By Glen Carey, Vivian Nereim and Christopher Cannon

October 26, 2017

 

Pink Scarf

A promotional video released on Tuesday features a lifestyle so far unavailable in Saudi cities.

 

It showed women free to jog in leotards in public spaces, working alongside men and playing instruments in a musical ensemble. The one woman wearing a hijab had her head covered with a patterned pink scarf. Although the futuristic city will be business friendly, the government won’t allow alcohol, Prince Mohammed said.

 

“We can do 98 percent of the standards applied in similar cities, but there is 2 percent we can’t do, like, for example, alcohol,” the prince said. “A foreigner, if they desire alcohol, can either go to Egypt or Jordan.”

 

Even by Saudi standards, the area where they are building the city is conservative. Along the coastal road, there are no tourist facilities and restaurants that allow women, other than the recently opened Golden Tulip Sharma Resort.

 

この計画を発表した会議にソフトバンクの孫会長も参加したようで、がっつり計画にも関わっているような感じです。サウジの若きプリンスも参加し、マリアさんもMCをやっていたりと力の入った会議のようです。

 

 

Saudi PIF, Softbank sign solar energyagreement

The MoU with the SoftBank Vision Fund will see the development of a 3-GW solar energy capacity in 2018

By Bernd Debusmann Jr

Thu 26 Oct 2017 09:50 AM

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the SoftBank Vision Fund have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a 'Solar Energy Plan 2030' for the kingdom.

 

Signed during the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, the new initiative includes an agreement to develop Saudi Arabia’s first 3-Gigawatt solar generation capacity in 2018. This will take place through the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), which is 74.3 percent owned by PIF.

あれっソフトバンクの太陽電池事業って突っ込みたくなりますが、まあ国が違えば違った可能性があるんでしょうか。