Posted on 04/25/2016 6:40:41 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
RIYADH—Saudi Arabia, crimped by low crude prices, approved Monday a long-term blueprint for the kingdom’s economic transformation aimed at reducing its dependence on oil.
The multiyear plan, dubbed “Saudi Vision 2030,” was approved by the cabinet, according to Saudi Arabia’s monarch, King Salman. The Saudi cabinet, in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, said the government’s economic council would be in charge of overseeing the vision’s implementation. Saudi officials later Monday were to present a broad overview of the country’s most extensive economic shake-up in decades.
The steep drop in oil prices has given new urgency to Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter of crude, to find new sources of income. King Salman has entrusted his 30-year-old son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who heads the economic council, to lead what are likely to be jarring changes in the kingdom.
“By 2020, we’ll be able to live without oil,” the prince told Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya in an interview aired on Monday. He also said less than 5% of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the state-owned oil giant, would be sold off publicly.
The prince said government spending would be restructured more than reduced, and that changes to the government’s generous subsidies wouldn’t affect the bottom 30% on Saudi’s economic ladder.
He also said it would be a while before the plan is fully implemented: “2015 was the year of the quick fix, 2016 is the year of the more organized quick fix, and 2017 will be the year the vision will begin,” he said.
Prince Mohammed also indicated the kingdom’s desire to move beyond its ultraconservative image, saying that Saudi Arabia would “open its doors to tourism of all nationalities in line with its tradition and values.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
PING!
“By 2020, we’ll be able to live without oil,” the prince told Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya in an interview aired on Monday.”
Doubtful.
“Prince Mohammed also indicated the kingdom’s desire to move beyond its ultraconservative image, saying that Saudi Arabia would “open its doors to tourism of all nationalities in line with its tradition and values.””
haha
Saudi Arabia Approves Economic Reform Program = import thousands of foreigners to do all the work in slave labor conditions while the Moron Saudis get all the top jobs and brag how smart they are
You have to have something that other people want. They have only oil. Game over.
(too your point) This article is not about economic reform, it is about budget reform. Saudi is not at all moving to liberalize (in a classical sense) its economy. Its USD reserves have decline from a high of $280B to $220B. Unless it liberalizes its economy and attract investment things will not get better. I have news for these oil based economies, the prices with stay low for the next 13 to 18 years..
Yet, they are smart enough not to do so because they know exactly what they would be getting.
Can't expand the Caliphate that way.
Even ending the mass production of clerics because work is beneath them and shifting a half million young people into the oil fields instead of depending on foreign labor would help.
So would ending the expectation of a foreign driver and maid, doing your own housework and transportation, and freeing up two million jobs for the domestic workforce.
The only place we saw more than a token Saudi worker or two was at official government duties at the ports of entry/departure.
A great read from before 9-11.
Spotting the Losers: Seven Signs of Non-Competitive States
1998 Ralph Peters
Mostly applies even after 9-11. Very timeless observations, for the most part, which can be applied at any time in human history.
In other words, they're lazy bums who sell oil and fund terror and jihad.
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