Saudi Arabia sets a road map for its economy to rank 15th globally

 Saudi Arabia aims to attract foreign investments to the Kingdom by providing new incentives and establishing special economic zones, with the aim of attracting more multinational companies.

On Monday, the Kingdom revealed its goals as part of the launch of the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, of the National Investment Strategy, which the Kingdom considers one of the pillars of achieving Vision 2030.

The special zones will seek to attract investments in priority sectors and high added value, according to the Saudi Press Agency "SPA".

The Saudi Crown Prince said that Saudi Arabia aims to reach the list of the 15 largest economies in the world by 2030.

He added that the volume of the targeted investment he brought to the Kingdom exceeds 1.7 trillion riyals annually.

According to Bloomberg Agency, net foreign investment in the Kingdom amounted to about $16 billion in the first half of 2021, compared to $2.4 billion in the first half of 2020.

Saudi pledge

Saudi Arabia has pledged to pump about $7.2 trillion into its local economy until 2030.

A few years ago, the wealthy Gulf kingdom launched "Vision 2030", an ambitious plan costing billions of dollars to diversify the economy and stop its dependence on oil.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman said: "The Kingdom begins a new investment phase based on our success in increasing the number and quality of opportunities for Saudi and international investors to empower the private sector and provide it with huge opportunities."

The "National Investment Strategy" published by "SPA" includes raising the "contribution of the private sector to the GDP to 65 percent, enhancing foreign direct investment to reach 5.7 percent of GDP, and increasing the proportion of non-oil exports from 16 percent to 50 percent of the total. Non-oil GDP, and reducing the unemployment rate to 7 percent.

government spending

The Crown Prince said, "Our country has huge investment capabilities, and we will seek to be an engine for our economy and an additional resource for our country."

The plan includes pumping more than $3.2 trillion in investments into the local economy until 2030, in addition to pumping about $2.6 trillion in government spending through the state's general budget over the next ten years, and another $1.3 trillion in private consumer spending for the same period.

The agency stated that "the total of this spending until 2030 is equivalent to 7 trillion dollars."

net investment flows

The strategy also aims to raise net foreign direct investment inflows to $103 billion annually, and increase domestic investment to about $453 billion annually by 2030.

Since Prince Mohammed became crown prince in 2017, the wealthy kingdom has witnessed radical economic, social and religious reforms, including unprecedented spending in the fields of entertainment in particular, by opening entertainment complexes and hosting various entertainment and sports events.

And last week, the Saudi Public Investment Fund bought Newcastle, the first major sporting investment for the kingdom.