Alwaght- In recent years, Saudi Arabia has experienced considerable political, social, and cultural changes. Much of these changes stem from policies and programs of the young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who is known as the de factor ruler of the West-backed kingdom. His ambitious plans to transform Saudi Arabia from a traditional and third-world nation run by oil revenues into a modern, industrialized, and developed country is a dream whose ideals are shown in the Saudi Vision 2030. According to this document, the kingdom should wean its economy off the oil revenues and change into a top economic power in the country and turn into one of the global industrial hubs in less than eight years from now.
Recently, in a cooperation meeting with leaders of some regional state, Bin Salman said that such an ambitious vision was conceivable for other Arab countries in the region as well.
Such idealism that is flavored by some tradition-breaking social freedoms and relaxing the strict ideological codes that have been in place for decades were welcomed by the younger generations in the first years of his assumption of the post, and he, relying on this part of the society, strengthened pillars of his rule and cracked down on his opponents. But dreamy economic and developmental status that he advertised with lots of flashy artistic programs like dancing festivals in which the most prominent American and European singers were brought to perform for the first time on the Saudi soil very soon showed its phantasmal and non-viable nature. Five years after unveiling the 2030 Vision and while one-third of the project has passed, the usual policy of oil sales and complete dependence on oil revenues not only was not scaled down, but also due to reckless and propagandistic spending, it grew more than before.
Until 2021, oil revenues accounted for 73 percent of the government’s total revenues, and oil exports constituted more than 82 percent of the total exports, and oil prices and exports remain the most important factor determining the national economic growth. With the increase in the oil prices, the Saudi economic growth in the third quarter of 2022 reached 8.6 percent, the highest rate in a decade. General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) reported that the growth of the oil sector in the first quarter of 2022 recorded a growth rate of 20.4 percent, while the growth of the non-oil sector was only 3.7 percent compared to the same period last year, reported Aljazeera.
An epitome of bin Salman utterly selling dreams to the Saudi society is Neom city megaproject. With a budget of $500 billion, bin Salman described Neom as a showcase for his reform plans and introducing the prosperity of Saudi Arabia’s economy, which will both transform the economy and serve as a platform for the application of the most advanced technologies of the future in everyday life— a project that is considered as Saudi Arabia's gateway for entry to the world club of developed countries.
The city, based on the preliminary and finalized plans, includes elevators that somehow fly in the sky, an imaginary airport, and buildings in the form of a dual rail which are supposed to house millions of people. The location for this city is chosen to be in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, starting from the scorching desert near the Red Sea coast and extending to mountainous regions— a desert tract where summer temperatures reach over 100°F and almost without fresh water. However, according to bin Salman and his advisors, the place will soon be home to millions of people who live in harmony with the environment, relying on water from desalination plants and power produced from fully renewable energy resources.
In a report about the progress of the project last year, Bloomberg published shocking findings about the waste of the Saudi capital on a mirage project.
According to the report, despite five years since the project began, bringing Neom from the realm of science fiction to reality remains a grand challenge, even for an absolute ruler who has access to a $620 billion wealth fund. According to more than 25 current and former project employees interviewed for the report, as well as 2,700 pages of internal documents, the project has faced major problems, many of which deriving from the difficulty of implementing bin Salman’s fanciful ideas. These problems are so serious that tens of key project employees have resigned so far.
In some cases, the efforts to relocate native residents of area of Neom have proven troublesome and even led to deadly armed clashes.
Bloomberg report further suggests that although there is no progress in Neom and it only brought waste of money for the Saudis, this project has become a lucrative job opportunity hiring international architects, futurists and even Hollywood production studios, each paid part of the Saudi wealth for works some strongly believe will never be used. Some of the plan’s middle and senior executives are paid tax-free salaries of $700,000 to $900,000 with a wide array of other benefits, which are more than 20 times the average of salary in the kingdom.
The uncertainty surrounding the project has pushed the government to impose a censorship regime on the information about the project and due to the fear of imprisonment, only a few people are ready to discuss the reality of the project. At least one ex-employ who criticized the project is already in prison, say reports.
“I was not alone in realizing that it was spurious at best,” Andy Wirth, an American hospitality executive who worked on Neom in 2020, says of the project. “The complete absence of being tethered to reality, objectively, is what was demonstrated there,” he went on.
From another aspect, Saudi Arabia, a top weapon purchaser, spends a large portion of its budget on arms. This huge spending motivated bin Salman to seek an ambitious plan for defense independence and arms self-sufficiency. But even this plan has not seen its realization so far as the kingdom’s moves are limited to arranging arms exhibitions that put to show assembly of light products of African weapons companies in the kingdom.
What General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) cited as the achievement of five years is the just projects for military products, a majority of whom still not joining armed forces. The achievements include production lines for drones, speed boats, guided ground-to-air ammunition, electro-optical observation systems, Al-Dahna patrol and support armored vehicles, domestication of air defense systems, designing of radio communication software, and production of military uniform and diving suits.
Even these stated equipment did not see mass production. For example, Al-Dahna vehicle was for the first time showcased in Saudi pavilion in IDEX 2019 international defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi. A GAMI official said that the first series of these vehicles would join Saudi security units in first half of 2021 but then no news reports were published about them entering service. Many agree that like other ambitious projects of bin Salman, this project was mainly for propaganda.
In the middle of these setbacks, the crown prince has begun to understand that continuing policy of selling ambitious ideas and dreams to public is losing its effect and he should think new ways to distract public attention from his failures and at the same time capture world attention with splashy moves. The largely pretentious contract with the Portuguese football star Christiano Ronaldo for Al Nasr football club with a record-breaking payment was part of these measures.
