By Gauhar Zahid Malik
At a time when a majority of countries are witnessing economic recession, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is on the rise – thanks to the visionary policies and their due implementation by its leadership, especially the Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud popularly known as MBS. So rapid is the process of economic transformation that the Crown Prince proudly and confidently declared at a recent high-level international forum that Saudi Arabia will be a completely different country in the next five years. He also firmly believed that the Middle-East will be the new Europe, declaring it a Saudi war, his own war.
What the Saudi leader said was not a mere slogan but backed by a concrete plan of action to take the Kingdom to new heights of progress and development. Saudi Arabia is witnessing fastest economic growth in decades because of a comprehensive process of reforms being undertaken by the Crown Prince aimed at diversification of the Kingdom’s oil-based economy. MBS has gradually introduced some social reforms to make the Kingdom more attractive for foreign investors.
The Crown Prince was the brain behind the long term ‘Vision 2030’, which was launched in 2016 and the progress made in its implementation has received appreciation from people of Saudi Arabia as well as global institutions. It is a strategic plan to achieve three intertwined goals of diversifying the Saudi economy away from oil, modernizing the society in consonance with cultural traditions and enhancing the Kingdom’s global profile. The vision is progressing well also because it seeks greater role for the country’s youth and women in national development. The Kingdom has taken a series of measures for empowerment of youth and women in line with their aspirations and their participation is quite visible in different walks of life. It was partly because of this that Saudi Arabia doubled its score in the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law Index from 31.9 in 2016 to 80 in 2022. As a result of the new policies, the proportion of Saudi women in work has doubled in the past four years to 33 percent, exceeding the 30 percent target set under the 2030 plan and the 27 percent average for the Middle East and North Africa.
All round progress made by Saudi Arabia under the dynamic leadership of MBS has widely been acknowledged by various global ranking agencies. Saudi Arabia was placed sixth in the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2022 peer group rankings’ attitude and values category, which assesses the global competitiveness of 63 countries on four indicators — economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure. The Kingdom also jumped 15 spots in the Global Innovation Index 2022 of the World Intellectual Property Organization. In the higher education sector, the 2030 target was to have five Saudi universities ranked in the top 200 Times Higher Education world university rankings. In 2022, 22 universities found space in the list.
The Kingdom plans to invest $7 trillion to implement Vision 2030, with the bulk of funding coming from its expanding sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, currently worth around $650 billion, and the private sector, including Saudi Aramco and the petrochemical firm SABIC. Foreign direct investment will be a major source in this respect. Saudi Government has successfully been organizing Future Investment Initiative Conference every year since 2018 leading to a substantial increase in foreign direct investment, which reached massive $640 billion in 2022.
Apart from securing huge foreign investment in different sectors of its economy, Saudi Arabia has also allocated huge funds for acquisition of economic and other assets abroad. Riyadh is bidding for strategic minerals and mining assets abroad while investing in everything from Korean anime to US tech stocks. In 2021, it acquired British football club, Newcastle United. It was in this backdrop that reports suggested the Kingdom was also showing interest in making investments in the mineral wealth of Pakistan, especially in Balochistan. In this connection, a few weeks back, a Saudi delegation, which included mining company Ma’aden and its new minerals investment venture Manara Minerals, led by Saudi vice minister for mining affairs, Khalid bin Saleh Al-Mudaifer, participated in the mineral summit to explore mineral investment opportunities in Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia is paying special attention to improve its tourism potential and in line with this policy, apart from increasing and expanding facilities in Harmain Sharifain to accommodate the ever-increasing number of Hajj and Umra seekers, tourism sites are being developed in different regions of the Kingdom besides construction of a futuristic city called NEOM at a cost of $500 billion. According to the World Tourism Barometer, the Kingdom welcomed 16.6 million tourists in 2022 compared to 3.5 million in 2021, endorsing the government’s push to become a major tourism hub in the region. Apart from design innovations, the NEOM city will have several other worth-emulating features, all energy will come 100% from renewable sources – the sun and the wind ensuring zero emissions. One of the most ambitious plans envisages that in a country that currently imports 80% of its food is to become world’s most food self-sufficient city by utilizing innovative vertical farming and greenhouses.
Saudi Arabia is also focusing on accountability and transparency to ensure good governance. The Kingdom envisages zero tolerance for all levels of corruption; boost transparency by expanding online services and improving governance standards; establish the King Salman Programme for Human Capital Development in order to train more than 500,000 government employees in best practices; and bolster the non-profit sector through increased efficiency and impact.
The Kingdom is playing a pivotal role in promoting regional and global peace and security. Its global standing and influence has increased significantly due to pro-peace and pro-development policies of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Crown Prince MBS. Muslims around the world highly appreciated when KSA and Iran mended their fences, courtesy China as the development will have soothing effect on Islamic solidarity. China and Saudi Arabia have established bilateral and regional coordination mechanisms to align China’s BRI and Kingdom’s Vision 2030. And only recently, Saudi Arabia has announced to become part of the countries planning to establish a new economic corridor. All these initiatives speak volumes about peace credentials of the Kingdom and its commitment to the cause of regional and global progress and development.
As the Crown Prince MBS has firm commitment to the cause of his country, it is foregone conclusion that he would succeed in turning Saudi Arabia into an oasis of peace and development within the self-imposed deadline of five years. (ends)
