Since the Saudi Crown Prince presented his vision 2030 to reshape the Saudi economy in a modern form that does not depend on oil alone as a source of income, it has been proven that the government of Saudi Arabia completely lacks a responsible economic and political leadership capable of making an economic system which is able to diversify and not depend on oil.
The inexperienced young man, the crown prince, clearly lacks these qualifications.
The absence of the elements and qualifications of leadership capable of facing crises is not the only crisis in the policies of the Kingdom. This crisis came as a normal outcome of throwing in prisons all those with determination and vision of reform.
The administrative recklessness of the state pursued by the Crown Prince since he took office, constituted an unprecedented policy in the history of the Kingdom, as the Kingdom lost all those qualified for consultation and decision-making. This was obvious in bin Salman’s involvement in the Yemen war, which incurred Unusual material losses, and caused a major humanitarian crisis in Yemen, after killing thousands, starving millions, and forcing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis to flee the country due to the war which wiped out everything in their areas.
Bin Salman’s political recklessness also caused an internal crisis of congestion after the Saudi society’s symbols of preachers, politicians, economists, human rights activists, and society were arrested without charge, imprisoned, and subjected to unjust trials that lack the most basic standards of justice.
After bin Salman arrested dozens of princes and senior businessmen who have influence in the Saudi non-oil economy, many investors fled Saudi Arabia in fear of those policies that are not subject to law or constitution.
The decision to release princes and businessmen after compromising their freedom in return for taking part of their money, shares in their companies, or political concessions, did not win back the investors who left the country, closed their companies, and fired their employees.
Excessive fear among businessmen who withdrew from investing in the Kingdom was justified due to the disappearance of senior politicians in the ruling circles, and US President Donald Trump’s support for the prince’s reckless policies. They felt that entering conflicts with MBS would only bring them troubles and losses, therefore they transferred their money outside the country, or postponed all their investment projects inside the Kingdom, or quickly canceled it.
Vision 2030 is a vision set and announced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2016 with the aim of increasing foreign direct investment from the GDP from 3.8% to the global average of 7.5%, but the reality proved that FDI flows decreased to $1.4 billion in 2017 from $7.5 billion in 2016, and from $12.2 billion in 2012 at its lowest level in 14 years, while the first phase of the vision requires increasing foreign direct investment to $18.7 billion by 2020.
Does bin Salman still believe in the success of his vision as he did on the day, he announced the vision?
