Cybersecurity, which emerged with the industrial revolution and the transformation of the digital economy, has become the most dangerous threat to economic security and reflects negatively on national security, according to a Saudi financial expert.
Chief Economic Adviser at the Ministry of Economy and Planning Raja al-Marzoqi called for adopting development and comprehensive growth to achieve economic security, one of the essential factors for national security amid structural changes in the international system and the acceleration of economic globalization.
Speaking during a lecture at the Prince Saud Al Faisal Institute for Diplomatic Studies (IDS) in Riyadh on economic security and its importance in national security amid international developments, Marzoqi explained that the risks include ownership, espionage, access to confidential websites and information, sabotage, abuse of power, corruption, fraud, and social and economic inequality.
Marzoqi warned that these risks negatively affect economic growth, saying that international reality and interdependence facilitated the transmission of these risks between the countries.
During the lecture, the expert touched on the concept of economic security and its importance, pointing out that it has emerged more globally after World War II and the spread of globalization.
World governments were partially dependent on military forces to achieve economic security, and the world was based on disputes to achieve economic interests due to its association with human interests.
However, the use of force to achieve economic interests decreased during the past century, said the expert, noting that nations now use monetary policies to improve their national economic competitiveness.
Marzoqi indicated that international economic cooperation contributed to reducing conflicts and wars while relying on improving competitiveness and opening markets. In addition, the second and third industrial revolutions, especially in communications, transportation, and production, significantly led to the global growth of per capita income.
According to the expert, economic development is necessary to achieve comprehensive economic growth, increase individual income, and reduce unemployment and poverty rates.
It also helps the government finance other security variables, noting that the state's weak economic capabilities are an existential threat, regardless of its military and political capabilities.
The adviser stated that the countries that focused on improving competitiveness and openness to the global economy achieved economic gains in increasing individual income, decreasing unemployment and poverty, raising their share of the total global revenue, and enhancing their contribution to the worldwide economy.
He referred to five important variables for economic security, namely food consumption and production, the standard of living and income, the ability of civil society and the government to meet people's needs, and the extent to which citizens can meet their basic needs of food, housing, health, and education services safely.
