The powerful prince is second in line to the throne, serves as the country’s defense minister and chairs a committee formed soon after his father’s ascension past year overseeing economic policymaking.
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At the recent talks of oil-producing nations in Doha (Qatar) aimed at stabilizing global oil prices, representatives of Saudi Arabia did not support the proposal of Russian Federation and a number of other countries to freeze crude production at current levels. Petroleum accounts for roughly 80 percent of the kingdom’s annual budget.
“In 2020, I think we will be able to live without oil”, Prince Mohammed said.
Although further details of Vision 2030 are expected to be announced later on April 25, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud encouraged Saudi Arabian nationals to get behind the plan and begin preparing for economic change.
Saudi Arabia has revealed plans to generate 9.5GW of electricity from renewable energy by 2030.
In the wide-ranging interview, Mohammed bin Salman said a planned partial initial public offering of the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco was part of the reform program.
Also, the kingdom is the world’s largest exporter of crude oil with leading positions in OPEC.
For example, the government aims to cut its dependence on oil by boosting its non-oil revenues to 600 billion riyals (US$160 billion) by 2020 and 1 trillion riyals by 2030, from 163.5 billion riyals in 2015. They have also scaled back spending on large projects.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region-Saudi Arabia today announced sweeping economic reforms aimed at reducing its dependency on oil profits.
“Just weeks after his father made him defense minister, fighter jets from Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s richest state, led a coalition into action against the Houthi militias of its poorest, Yemen”.
According to the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, the volume of the fund’s assets represent more than 3% of existing assets worldwide.
He also proposed to make foreign investment easier.
The Saudi 2030 vision will probably be viewed positively by market participants.
“For me as a Saudi, I am concerned by the education transformation plan”, a Saudi entrepreneur told Reuters. “If it is not at the top of the list, why not?”
Increasing women’s participation in the workforce from 22 per cent to 30 per cent and lowering the unemployment rate from 11.6 per cent to seven per cent. But it didn’t include concrete measures for lifting restrictions on women citizens.
The sexes are separated in restaurants and other public facilities. “So far the society is not persuaded”, he told reporters, adding that change can not be forced, Al Arabiya reported.
But analysts have long warned that the Saudi system, which counted on oil for 73% of state revenues past year, is deeply bureaucratic and inefficient.
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Aramco will be converted into an energy holding company with an elected board and some subsidiaries will be listed.
