Medina Knowledge Economic City was launched by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud in June 2006 and is the third of six economic cities announced by Amr Dabbagh, Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority. The 30 billion riyal project is located in Madinah, the second-holiest of three key cities in Islam. The master-plan was designed by Creative Kingdom Dubai. Knowledge Economic City is a project to position Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabian entrepreneurs as leaders in knowledge based industries and aims to attract and develop talent from around the world. 20,000 jobs and accommodation for 150,000 people will be created by the project which is expected to bring about 10 billion Riyals a year into the region once it is completed by 2020. According to the Saudi Real Estate Companion, the development should be primarily considered a residential development, which is expected to greatly increase the residential supply in the city. One of the key drivers for the development is likely to be the legal framework with regards to non-national ownership in the area. Wikipedia