The Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon) is designing the industrial city to be constructed in the Eastern city of Hafuf next year, Russia Today reported.
The city will attract USD 33 million in investments and create around 5,000 jobs in textiles, pharmaceuticals and food processing industries.
"I'm sure that women can demonstrate their efficiency in many aspects and clarify the industries that best suit their interests, their nature and their ability," Modon deputy director-general, Saleh Al-Rasheed, told Saudi daily al-Eqtisadiah.
Women cannot work in Saudi Arabia, but according to some estimates, around 15 percent of them are represented in the workforce. Some factories are owned by women and there are companies that employ female workers.
Saudi officials are working on more women-only cities apart from Hafuf.
“We are now working on a second industrial city for women,” said Saleh Al Rasheed. “We have plans to establish a number of women-only industries in various parts of the kingdom.”
The Persian Gulf kingdom has replaced many foreign and male salespeople with Saudi women in clothing, cosmetics and perfume shops.
Saudi Arabia has made efforts to change the societal structure in the kingdom which has been under fire from rights groups for systematic discrimination against women.
King Abdullah announced last September that women will be able to vote in the 2015 local elections and for the Consultative Assembly.
Women also obtained the right to represent their country at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
On January 22, Human Rights Watch said in a statement that Saudi authorities “continue to suppress or fail to protect the rights of 9 million Saudi women and girls.”
Saudi Arabia is also the only country in the world to ban women -- both Saudi and foreign -- from driving.
