Saudi Arabia on track for better future; economic diversification ongoing: Crown Prince

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hailed the achievements made by the Kingdom since the launch of Vision 2030, and the continuation of the government's structural reforms on the financial and economic aspects.

This came on the occasion of endorsing the state budget for 2024.

The Crown Prince also highlighted raising the rate of sustainable economic growth in light of the great development capabilities and opportunities that the Kingdom enjoys within the framework of Vision 2030.

This enables the Kingdom to move forward towards a better future worthy of its status, in accordance with the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, which had a clear and prominent impact on the growth of non-oil activities, he stated.

The Crown Prince affirmed the government’s commitment in the 2024 budget to spur economic growth through the expansion of government spending, saying that the budget figures announced by King Salman are supportive and enabling of several programs and initiatives that include investments aimed at strengthening the Kingdom’s infrastructure and raising the quality of services provided to its citizens, residents and visitors alike.

This is in addition to developing promising economic sectors, boosting investment attractiveness, stimulating industries, and enhancing Saudi levels of content localization and non-oil exports. He also highlighted the effective and important role of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the National Development Fund (NDF).

The Crown Prince also emphasized the continuation of work to develop the Kingdom’s fiscal performance. This is by amplifying the financial capabilities and building government reserves, in a way that bolsters the capacity of the Kingdom’s economy, maintains sustainable levels of public debt, and enables confronting any developments or crises that may arise in the future.

He indicated that increased spending is mainly due to the government’s keenness to continue developing the level of public services provided to citizens, residents and visitors. This is besides implementing several projects and expanding spending on sectoral and regional development strategies, which achieve positive structural changes that lead to further economic diversification and expansion.

Moreover, boosting public-private partnerships (PPPs), according to the Crown Prince, is key to economic diversification, enabling the labor market to absorb more of the Saudi workforce, create new jobs and reduce unemployment rates among Saudis. He highlighted that the total number of Saudis in the local labor market increased this year to 2.3 million.

The Kingdom also works to boost the investment environment and its attractiveness, which contributes to fueling domestic and foreign investment, developing non-oil exports and improving the non-oil trade balance of payments.

Furthermore, the journey of economic diversification continues by supporting promising sectors. The Kingdom seeks to raise tourism targets to 150 million visitors internally and externally by 2030, in addition to building an effective sports sector.

Saudi Arabia, says the Crown Prince, is determined to develop the local industrial sector, being key for the national economy. This is by diversifying the industrial base and value chains through the National Industrial Strategy, which focuses on 12 sub-sectors to diversify the industrial economy and triple the industrial domestic product, compared to 2020, to reach SAR 895 billion by 2030.

The industrial sector is a major contributor to the development of non-oil exports, in integration with the key role of the PIF as it is the investment arm that contributes and complements the efforts undertaken by the government in diversifying the economy, said the Crown Prince.

He also stressed the Kingdom's pivotal and leading role both regionally and internationally, given its keenness to develop and stabilize supply and value chains in a way that serves the development and economic prosperity of all countries of the world.

The Crown Prince concluded by reaffirming the Kingdom’s determination to continue to boost the attractiveness of the Saudi economy as a benchmark for local and foreign investments in the coming year as well as in the medium and long terms. This besides the ongoing adoption of economic diversification strategies through the development of all economic sectors.