Saudi Arabia's heritage city of AlUla is being transformed into a sustainable tourist destination as local authorities have hired global power management experts to provide smart and renewable energy solutions for its infrastructure and buildings.

The AlUla Royal Commission, charged with protecting and maintaining the city's archaeological and cultural values, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Schneider Electric, The agreement was signed by Mohammad Shaheen, president of Schneider Electric's Saudi Arabia cluster, and Lawrence Eta, Vice President of Digital and Analytics at RCU, at the recent Energy Summit in Riyadh. The French energy company will also provide consulting services on data centers and electric mobility infrastructure to operate AlUla's hotels, museums and residential towers.

"By deploying the latest software and technologies, Schneider Electric and RCU will strive to make the kingdom's fast-growing tourism industry not only more resilient, energy efficient and cost-effective, but also greener and cleaner for future generations," Shaheen said in a statement.

"We are delighted to sign this agreement with RCU, which symbolizes our mission to build super-effective partnerships that contribute to a more electric, digital and sustainable world." Developing AlUla is high on the agenda of Saudi Arabia's national tourism strategy as the kingdom aims to attract 100 million tourists by 2030 and increase the contribution of tourism to GDP to more than 10 percent.

The tourism strategy also aims to create an additional 1 million jobs in Saudi Arabia. In March, RCU signed an agreement with the Paris-based Centre Pompidou to develop a contemporary art museum in AlUla. The new museum will focus on the work of regional artists in the 21st century and extend to the South Asian and North African diaspora.Editor/XingWentao