Two messages that landed in my WhatsApp this August, from two contacts I had tried — and failed — to bring onto projects around the Red Sea not long ago.
“Good morning sir, hopefully you are doing well. Any news about upcoming projects for us?”
“Hi sir, this is Muhammad from X. I’m getting out of the NEOM projects. Is there anything on the table where we could help you?”
Back then I was doing the chasing. I was the one struggling to find people and subcontractors for work in the region, and the answer I kept getting was some version of the same sentence:
“We’re overloaded with NEOM. We have a backlog for years.”
Well. It seems that is not the case anymore.
So what happened?
