Scarcity is not the only obstacle facing MBS’ 50 billion trees project, as there are other crises including:
The Financial Challenge Amid Deficit
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is facing financial challenges due to a number of crises that hit the Saudi economy, especially with the war in Yemen, the drop in oil prices to an unprecedented rate, as well as the Corona pandemic, and the suspension of Hajj and Umrah seasons for people coming from abroad.
The financial deficit crisis increases significantly due to MBS projects on which he spends billions from the Sovereign Fund’s money, without providing a clear vision, and his insistence on carrying on in these projects despite investors’ withdrawal for political, economic, and human rights reasons.
Some projects of MBS launched in 2016 were supposed to end in 2020 but are still draining the kingdom’s money without bringing any profit, while he is currently promising people to end these projects in 2030, according to the name of his economic vision 2030, which included the NEOM project, with costs of $500 billion, with the participation of Egypt, Jordan and Israel.
Investment specialists agree that the project to plant 50 billion trees in Saudi Arabia and other Arab and Middle Eastern countries is an illusion, given the Kingdom’s public debt rising to 34% of the GDP, according to Saudi government figures and statistics.
Money Spend to Clean the Prince’s Image
The Saudi Crown Prince spends millions of dollars annually, through the establishment of research centers, and other economic and political centers, to improve his distorted image in the West, in cooperation with prominent media professionals, especially in the USA, in order to exert pressure on decisions lobbies in The White House, regarding MBS’s bad human rights and political record.
Bin Salman also squanders millions of riyals on the opening of cinemas and entertainment centers to change the Kingdom’s identity, which raised anger in Saudi public opinion, but at the same time satisfies decision-makers in the West.
The giant projects of Mohammed bin Salman, which are announced every month, are not evidence of his vitality, activity, and sharp instinct, as his media claims, but rather reflect his lack of economic and political experience. He is unable to complete one project and instead of finishing one by one he leaves these projects open until they’re forgotten, and he announces another to delude the public opinion.
Many projects were announced by MBS, starting with the NEOM project at the top of his Vision 2030 projects in 2016, until the Green Saudi Project and the Green Middle, and other projects in the middle, of which bin Salman did not implement a single project.
Recently he announced the flexibility of Vision 2030, after realizing the failure to implement it, and after it became a satirical material in the Western and Arab media.
Would MBS stop at this point, or does he enjoy failure and ridiculing himself?
