Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper), Saudi Arabia has seen a traditionally conservative state of the Middle East with a predominantly Sunni Muslim population, a constitution based on Islamic Shariah law and young Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud as a head of state. Even though the country was closed to the world for decades, there are some signs that it is changing.
After Mohammad bin Salman came to power, some positive changes were noticed, concerning more freedom for women, improvement of the education system, and new investments. In 2018 Mohammad bin Salman’s government issued a law that permits women to get their own driver’s licences. Previously, families had to hire private drivers to transport female relatives and after the law passed, women could drive cars by themselves. More and more women started to remove veils from their faces.
Colored abayas, the full-length cloaks, have become more commonplace. It became easier for the citizens to receive a high-quality education in the country as 14 universities in Saudi Arabia received high ranks in the World University Rankings. King Abdulaziz University, which was ranked in the 51-position, became one of the best institutions for higher education in the Middle East region.
However, the biggest problem that is facing Saudi Arabia nowadays is its wealth of natural resources. Saudi Arabia is heavily dependent on its oil revenues as 90% of its exports and 42%[4] of its GDP is petroleum. To change this, Saudi Arabia is trying to develop other sectors of the economy starting with tourism. In April 2016 Mohammad bin Salman announced the opening of a governmental project “Vision 2030”, which is aimed not only at the reduction of the Kingdom’s reliance on oil but on economic, social, and cultural diversification.
“Vision 2030” includes the construction of Mega City projects, such as Neom, Amaala, Red Sea, King Abdullah EC, Al Ula, Jeddah EC, Masar-Makkah, Al Faisaliah EC, and Riyadh.
The most prominent among them is the Neom project- a modern city planned to be built across the Saudi side of the Gulf of Aqaba. Neom construction cost equals $500 billion and is one of the most expensive projects of the Saudi government. The goal of the project is to attract tourists and foreign investments, which is why the appearance of the megapolice has no analog in any other state.
Neom linear city, one of its main subprojects, will be a 500 m tall, 200 m wide, and 170 km long smart city that will be designed to produce no carbon emissions, no cars, and no streets. The designers of the Neom project want to create a modern area with an industrial complex, global trade hub, and tourist resorts accessible within 6 hours at the heart of the globe’s key trade routes.
Nevertheless, the construction met significant criticism due to its potential negative impact on the environment and the government’s compulsion of native tribes to leave the construction area. “For the Huwaitat tribe, Neom is being built on our blood, on our bones,” says Alia Hayel Aboutiyah al-Huwaiti, an outspoken activist and member of the tribe living in London. “It’s not for the people already living there! It’s for tourists, people with money. But not for the original people living there.”
Another problem with projects is that they are sponsored primarily by the government, foreign investment is mostly the exception from the rule. The reason for that is the mistrust of investors in the Saudi government. Considering the scale of the projects, high level of corruption, and relative isolation of the country, foreign investors do not intend to take on such high risks. Some of the projects are conceivable and the potential threat can be insufficient funding (as high innovative projects need deep research, new technologies, and high-qualified materials), other are just unimaginable and too complicated to perform (Neom project, for instance).
If we compare Saudi Arabia to UAE, we see that the majority of infrastructural projects were fully completed and the share of foreign investors in the funding of projects is greater. The answer to that is that the UAE is more tolerant and less corrupt and the business rules are less demanding. Foreigners are allowed to establish companies with 100 percent full ownership in UAE regarding nationality, race, and confession, which can’t be said about Saudi Arabia.
To attract more investors internally and externally, Saudi Arabia needs to focus on more trustworthy projects that could be completed and could bring positive effects to the economy.
Tolerance- is one of the main decisions on the path to success; people, who want to invest in Saudi Arabia are different personalities of different nationalities, genders, and religions and they can contribute to the economy in an equally positive way. Political and financial transparency- are other tools to achieve economic miracles. In summary, behind these modern projects, there is a system that has not changed radically.
Saudi Arabia still has a strict system based on Shariah law, opposition is suppressed for the spread of information about the government’s misdoings, and human rights are still violated.
