Saudi Vision 2030
Saudi Vision 2030 is a government initiative launched on 25 April 2016 by the Saudi government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy, society, and culture. The project aims to improve fiscal management and reduce the country's economic dependency on oil.
The Council of Ministers has tasked the Council of Economic and Development Affairs with monitoring Saudi Vision 2030. Saudi Vision 2030 aims to increase urbanization and international tourism via large-scale projects such as the planned Neom mega-project, and the forced evictions of over half a million people. Saudi Vision 2030 has also coincided with some limited lifting of restrictions on women's rights in Saudi Arabia.
As of 2022, Saudi Arabia's economy remains heavily dependent on oil revenue. Oil accounted for approximately 40% of Saudi GDP and 75% of its fiscal revenue.
The Saudi Vision 2030 program faces strong criticism from human rights advocates, with allegedly over 21,000 workers having died on the job in program-related projects between 2017 and 2024, according to a 2024 investigation. The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 led to a decrease in international interest and investment in the project.
Overview
Oil accounts for 43% of Saudi Arabia's real GDP. The contribution of oil revenue to Saudi GDP varies each year due to fluctuations in oil prices, but averages at 40% in the years prior to 2022. Oil accounts for an average of 75% of fiscal revenue.Decreasing this dependence on oil resources has been one of the goals of the government since the 1970s. Oil and other natural wealth in countries that depend on these resources as a major source of income have been described as the "resource curse". However, the implementation of this goal has been unstable and remains largely dependent on the price of oil. The core priority is to be able to develop alternative sources of revenue for the government, such as taxes, fees, and income from the sovereign wealth fund. Another major aspect is to lower the dependency of the country's citizens on public spending by spending on subsidies, higher salaries, and increasing the portion of the economy contributed by the private sector to provide more employment opportunities. The goals in Saudi Vision 2030 could be compared with other development plans in the Middle East, such as Kuwait Vision 2035, Egypt Vision 2030 and UAE Vision 2021.
The vision has three main pillars: to make the country the "heart of the Arab and Islamic worlds", to become a global investment powerhouse, and to transform the country's location into a hub connecting Afro-Eurasia.
The plan is supervised by a group of people employed under the National Center for Performance Measurement, the Delivery Unit, and the Project Management Office of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs. The National Transformation Program was designed and launched in 2016 across 24 government bodies.
Saudi Vision 2030 lays out targets for diversification and improving competitiveness. It is built around three main themes which set out specific objectives that are to be achieved by 2030:
- A vibrant society – urbanism, culture and entertainment, sports, Umrah, UNESCO heritage sites, life expectancy
- A thriving economy – employment, women in the workforce, international competitiveness, Public Investment Fund, foreign direct investment, non-oil exports
- An ambitious nation – non-oil revenues, government effectiveness, e-government, household savings and income, non-profits, and volunteering.
Projects and initiatives
National Transformation Program
On 7 June 2016, the Council of Ministers approved the National Transformation Program which set out the goals and targets to be achieved by 2020. It is the first of three 5-year phases. Each phase will contribute towards achieving a number of goals and targets that put the Kingdom on track to reach the ultimate goals of Vision 2030. In addition, to assist the Kingdom in financing the projects to be developed and facilitate the process of achieving goals and targets, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman announced in January 2016 that an IPO of Saudi Aramco would take place. However, only 5% of the company will be made public.In March 2019, Aramco released its financial statements, disclosing a net income of $111.1 billion in 2018. In June 2019, the Financial Times reported that Aramco is striving to separate its association with the Ministry of Investment, ahead of its potential listing. The company had been paying Ministry-related expenses, according to unnamed sources. The report revealed that Khalid Al-Falih had been using the company's revenues for his expenses, either directly relevant to Aramco or otherwise diplomatic. However, Falih's ally stated that his policies have brought in greater revenues for the firm.
The two massive tourism projects along the Red Sea planned by the Saudi government were to be run under the directorship of Richard Branson. On 11 October 2018, Branson stated that he is suspending his advisory role for the two projects amidst the Jamal Khashoggi murder. Branson also suspended talks with the Saudi government about investment in Virgin Galactic. He said he had "high hopes for the current government in the Kingdom and its leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman…the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, if proved true, would clearly change the ability of any of us in the West to do business with the Saudi Government."
Entertainment sector
In May 2016, a General Authority for Entertainment was announced by royal decree, into which over $2 billion have been invested. In Riyadh, the first public live music concert in over 25 years was held in May 2017, which featured American country musician Toby Keith and Saudi singer Rabeh Sager. In April 2017, the government announced a sports, culture, and entertainment complex at Al-Qidiya, south-west of Riyadh. The project will include a Six Flags Qiddiya City theme park, which opened in 2025.As a component of Vision 2030, there was a celebration of the 87th anniversary of the founding of the country with concerts and performances. Women were for the first time allowed into Riyadh's King Fahd International Stadium.
On 5 March 2018, the General Sports Authority announced a 10-year partnership with American professional wrestling promoter World Wrestling Entertainment to hold annual pay-per-view events in Saudi Arabia. The first event, Greatest Royal Rumble, was held on 27 April 2018 at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah. Due to restrictions on women's rights, WWE's female performers were not initially featured in these events. During Crown Jewel on 31 October 2019, Lacey Evans and Natalya participated in the first women's professional wrestling match to be held in Saudi Arabia. In observation of conservative dress, they both wore black leggings and T-shirts over bodysuits instead of their normal ring attire.
Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year moratorium on the construction of new movie theaters in the country, with the first new theatre, owned by AMC Theatres, opening on 18 April 2018 in Riyadh.
In 2019, a winter festival known as Riyadh Season was first held in support of Vision 2030, including various concerts, entertainment events, attractions, and cultural pavilions, such as the MDLBeast "SoundStorm" electronic music festival, and the country's first official New Year's Eve event at Boulevard Riyadh City.
In January 2020, Saudi Arabia unveiled plans to build a new racing circuit in Qiddiya designed by former Formula One driver Alexander Wurz, aiming to host F1 or MotoGP events as early as 2023. In November 2020, it was announced that a circuit was being developed in Jeddah to host the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021.
Women's rights
In early 2017, Saudi state schools announced that they would be offering physical education classes to both boys and girls starting in the fall of 2017. Later that year, the state announced that they would allow women to attend sports events, including those inside sports stadiums. On 26 September 2017, a royal decree was issued granting women the right to drive vehicles which took effect in June 2018.While changes to the law have been implemented for the welfare of women, some argue more progress still needs to be made. The case of Israa al-Ghomgham came to light after she and her husband were arrested in December 2015 for calling for the release of political prisoners and an end to anti-Shia government discrimination. Saudi prosecutors are seeking death penalty for Ghomgham.
In 2019, the government-based web application Absher gained media attention and was criticized for tracking the movement of the women of the kingdom. The app, which promotes a male guardianship system, allows men to manage women's lives digitally by specifying where and when a woman can travel. The app also sends alerts to men's phones if a woman uses her passport at the border. The European Parliament and United States Congress condemned the app and urged the Kingdom to abolish its male guardianship system.
In August 2019, Saudi Arabia lifted travel restrictions on women and granted greater control to those above the age of 21.
As part of its plan to modernize, Saudi Arabia was adopting changes to enhance women's rights and gender equality. However, the country was being criticized, where human rights groups said that all its efforts "are not serious and fall within the whitewashing campaigns it is carrying out to improve its human rights record". It was after Saudi authorities detained a 34-year-old woman, Salma al-Shehab, and sentenced her to 34 years in prison. Shehab, a Ph.D. student of Leeds University, was in Saudi on vacation since the end of 2019. In January 2021, she was detained for her activity on Twitter, where she followed and retweeted activists and dissidents. She was sentenced to six years at the end of 2021, but the sentence was increased to 34 years after she appealed. The court also ruled for a subsequent 34-year travel ban, confiscation of her mobile phone, and for her Twitter account to be "closed down permanently". Shehab was reported on a Saudi-based crime-reporting app, Kollona Amn, or We Are All Security, by a user. Rights groups condemned Shehab's sentence, which they called evidence of Prince Mohammed's crackdown on dissent.
Female labor force participation in Saudi Arabia rose from 20% in 2014 to 31% by 2021. This was mainly due to the both gender-specific policies and gender-neutral fiscal pressures.