Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz has endorsed plans to establish a second industrial city in Jubail.

The new city is expected to attract investment worth SR131 billion ($34.9 billion) and create 55,000 new job opportunities.

Prince Saud bin Abdullah, chairman of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, said the crown prince approved the project while chairing a meeting of the commission's board of directors and directed authorities to start work on it.

Prince Abdullah, who toured the Eastern Province, also inaugurated 14 projects worth SR35 billion in Jubail. They included three expansions of Kemya at a cost of SR4.5 billion, expansions at Ibn Zahr (SR1.125 billion), Petrokemya (SR3 billion) and Sharq (SR4.7 billion) and the opening of a flat steel plant project (SR5 billion).

He also laid the foundation stone for the SR8 billion United Jubail Petrochemical Company and a SR180 million Sabic technological centre.

Prince Abdullah laid the cornerstone for the National Industrialisation Company (NIC) petrochemical plant.

Mubarak Al Khafra, chairman of the National Industrialisation Company for Petrochemicals, said the company's new SR2 billion industrial complex, for which the crown prince laid the foundation, would produce 500,000 tonnes of polypropylene annually.

He also opened the expansion of the cooling water system under the Royal Commission, toured the project's facilities and approved the expansion of the industrial colleges in Jubail and Yanbu and the establishment of a technical institute in Yanbu.

Prince Saud asserted that private capital worth more than SR200 billion had been invested in the twin industrial cities of Jubail and Yanbu, adding that the commission had already established 30 industrial complexes. Industry and Electricity Minister Dr Hashim Yamani said the industrial sector contributed 10 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).