In an interview conducted by the local media with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in April 2021, he presented an update on Vision 2030, it became clear to viewers that bin Salman’s enthusiasm for his vision did not match his enthusiasm when he launched his 2030 vision to support and diversify the economy of Saudi Arabia.
Five years after the launch of Vision 2030, and according to the plan announced by bin Salman at the time, the project’s first phase should have achieved benefits to the Saudi economy, however, it was not successful and did not bring employment opportunities, or provide new services to the people.
The Unsurprised Citizen
The Saudi citizens were not surprised by the failure of Vision 2030, as they have been accustomed to fake projects of the Kingdom, which soon become a dream.
Vision 2030 is clear evidence of the weakness of the vision’s authors and planners for its various stages, and its marketing locally and internationally.
Changing the economy into a diversified economy that is not entirely dependent on oil needs to work according to realistic visions, without bragging about unrealistic projects to create a case of propaganda for the ruler and the emir.
The state of success for the growth of the economy also requires stopping the absurd military spending and using that money to improve the lives of people, constructing factories, and developing education and technology.
MBS’s biggest failure was launching entertainment and tourism projects worth billions, which are affected by the common crises in the world, like the corona pandemic for instance.
It was not only Saudi Arabia that launched a vision to develop its economy, but all the Gulf countries did so, as the UAE set “Vision 2021”, Bahrain and Qatar “National Vision 2030”, Kuwait “Vision 2035”, and Oman “Vision 2040”, however, MBS wanted to combine all Gulf visions into his own to achieve diversification of the economy with a focus on trade and to “provide world-class health care” in order to “provide youth with the skills needed for future jobs”, and to ensure a conducive business environment to attract foreign investment and entrepreneurs.
However, all of his projects were based on entertainment and tourism only, which is useless in the Gulf regions, due to the climate and global economic crises, which means the loss of billions of the Saudi people in fake projects without benefit, in case of realization and fulfillment of these projects and visions are fulfilled.
Nevertheless, unfortunately, these funds are spent on media and advertising campaigns every day without the completion of a single project that bin Salman promised to develop the Saudi economy with.
The past years proved the reality of his promises and his fake projects which reflected his lack of strategic thinking, effective management, the experience of politicians and economists, nor the wisdom that he wanted his media to portray him.
