RIYADH, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud inaugurated on Thursday the first phase of the Waad Al-Shamal Industrial City Project worth 14.6 billion U.S. dollars, Al Arabiya local news reported.
The project in Waad Al-Shamal, a Saudi mining city in the Northern Borders Region, is expected to create 10,000 jobs as part of the government's initiative to increase non-oil revenues.
The cost of the first and second phase of the projects is estimated at 2.26 billion dollars.
The completion of the Waad Al-Shamal mining project will raise Saudi Arabia's annual phosphate fertilizer production to 9 million tonnes, thus making the kingdom the world's second largest producer of phosphate fertilizer, according to Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih.
