Saudi Arabia has announced that it will invest USD 64 billion over the next ten years to build its entertainment industry as part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 programme. Construction is due to begin on the first opera house in Jeddah soon.

Earlier this month, there were official announcements from both Vue International and Kuwait National Cinema Company that they would open cinema multiplexes in the country before the end of this year.

Ahmed bin Aqeel Al Khatib, Chairman of the Board of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) announced that the Kingdom will host 5000 entertainment events this year with several musicals, stand-up comedy, live performances from some of the biggest names in music and Cirque du Soleil part of these plans.

Al-Khatib announced that 500 companies have already registered to organise entertainment events in one year. He added that the authority’s main purpose is “to build a world-class entertainment industry that will put the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the global tourism and entertainment map”.

Eng. Faisal Bafarat, CEO of GEA, added that the scale of the 2018 entertainment programme will create a “total of 224,000 new jobs, including 114,000 direct and 110,000 indirect jobs expected to be created in the sector by 2030”.