About Saudi Arabia

With a GDP of 782 billion USD in 2019, Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia relies almost entirely on oil, of which it remains in 2019 the largest exporter and the second largest producer in the world.

With more than $1.4 trillion-worth of major projects planned or underway, Saudi Arabia is the biggest projects market in the region.

In April 2016, Mohammed ben Salman launched a vast project: "Vision 2030", which includes an ambitious economic target to diversify Saudi economy (to switch from a rent-based and redistributive economy to a productive economy and to relying mainly on the private sector and characterized by a strong ability to innovate) but also an objective of societal transformation. To sustain this plan, the Saudi authorities announced on January 28, 2019 an ambitious program to inject $ 427 billion of investment in the sectors of industry, infrastructure and services, in order to reduce dependence on oil.

This modernization policy involves structural reforms, diversification efforts, the gradual elimination of subsidies and the introduction of taxes (VAT type), which were previously non-existent in the Kingdom.

Besides, the “Vision 2030” strategic plan is broken down into several goals, including creating new jobs for Saudi youth. 75% of Saudis are under thirty years old (out of 31.5 million inhabitants), one third of young people are unemployed.

Finally, beginning of 2019, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates launched a strategic initiatives whose objectives is to increase cross-border business opportunities and to ease the flow of goods between the 2 countries.