Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030
(January 5, 2019)
Nader Habibi
Crown Center for
Middle East Studies
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA
USA
Before gaining notoriety for his alleged role in the murder
of Jamal Khashoggi, before capturing world attention for “jailing” top Saudi
business leaders and members of the Saudi royal family in Ritz-Calrton Hotel in
November 2017, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) was known as the
power behind Vision 2030 – an ambitious comprehensive economic diversification
and social liberalization plan. As a
comprehensive social and economic reform plan, the Vision 2030 was formally put
in motion by MBS in April 2016. Earlier that year he explained it to the world
in a five-hour
interview with the Economist.
Although two and a half year is only a small portion of the
Vision’s 14-year horizon, some of the steps taken so far have been substantial
and consequential.
The implementation of Vision 2030, however,
has also been impacted by some radical measures by MBS and some unexpected
developments. The Yemen war, for example, was anticipated to be a short
military campaign but it has endured for more than three years and has imposed
a much larger military and financial cost on Saudi Arabia than initial
projections. Yet the most significant shock to the Saudi Arabia as a country,
and to its vision 2030 plan, is the exposed murder of the dissident journalist
Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi intelligent agents in that country’s consulate in
Istanbul. This incident has led to sharp condemnation of Mohammed Bin Salman
who is accused by Turkish and American intelligence establishments of having
directly ordered this killing. Not only some of Saudi Arabia’s major allies in
the West, such as larger EU nations and the United States, have been very vocal
in their criticism of Saudi government, but several major private corporations
have scaled back their investments and partnerships with Saudi counterpart?
This brief offers an overview of what Saudi Arabia has
accomplished so fat in implementation of Vision 2030 and how will the remaining
reforms be implemented in the aftermath of the international response to the
Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Read More...