About 42 international companies have agreed to join hands with leading engineering company Gammon Group to develop the new industrial city in the Saudi Arabian city of Jazan, said a report.

A global construction company with a strong presence in emerging markets in Asia and Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, Gammon has been assigned to facilitate developing the industrial city and is now studying the proposals of several big companies and business tycoons, reported the Saudi Gazette.

The company had in December 2013 signed an agreement with Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Nasser, director of international trade at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, to develop the city by bringing in foreign investors to build its entire infrastructure facilities such as roads, bridges, commercial centres, power plants, water treatment plants, oil refineries and petrochemical plants, it stated.

"A number of leading companies from Japan, China, South Korea, India and other countries are interested to make investments in the city and Gammon is negotiating with these companies,” chairman Sheikh Rafik Mohammed was quoted as saying in the report.

The recently concluded Jazan Economic Forum (JEF) was a milestone in attracting several leading global giants to tap the vast investment opportunities available in Jazan, as well as to benefit from big incentives offered by the Saudi government to investors, he added.

The key investors eyeing the Jazan deal include BR Shetty, the chief executive officer and managing director of New Medical Centre Group of Companies and UAE Exchange and Indian group Shree Basaveshwar Sugars Limited (SBSL).

The UAE-based Indian billionaire has unveiled plans to pump in SR2 billion ($533 million) into the healthcare and pharmaceutical manufacturing sectors in the new industrial city, while SBSL will be setting up a SR1.5-billion ($400 million) sugar refinery project.

The others include Chinese solar giant Ying Li Solar, South Korea’s Posco, which plans to set up a steel factory, and Hebort International of Hong Kong, which will be establishing a water factory.