Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, led on Sunday a Special Dialogue session at the World Economic Forum Special Meeting in Riyadh to discuss the current geopolitical and economic challenges facing the world, and the Kingdom’s steadfast efforts to expand global collaboration to help build a more resilient and integrated global economy.
Tackling the challenges of today’s geopolitical environment before global leaders from government, business and academia, Crown Prince Mohammed underlined the Kingdom’s commitment to acting as a stabilizing force in the region, noting that cohesion and cooperation with regional and global partners holds the key to achieving security and prosperity.
By building on decades of robust growth fueled by its energy exports, Saudi Arabia has created diverse opportunities for regional and global investors, providing a gateway to the Middle East and a bridge between developing and developed economies, he stressed.
He highlighted the Kingdom’s achievements under Saudi Vision 2030, noting that it continues to create transformative investment opportunities in emerging sectors across its evolving economy.
Moreover, he addressed the comprehensive set of reforms implemented in the Kingdom throughout the past eight years to enable the private sector to become an engine of growth, highlighting the growth of Public Investment Fund and its goal to become a trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund.
Underscoring Saudi Arabia’s rapidly diversifying economy, Crown Prince Mohammed spoke of the Kingdom’s recent milestone: for the first time, Saudi Arabia’s current non-oil GDP represented more than 50% of the country’s total GDP in 2023.
He also emphasized the importance of investing in research and development, noting that such investment has propelled the growth of national companies, including ACWA Power, Ceer and Alat.
This creates a foundation for these companies to embed emerging technologies into their business models and further the growth of the sector in the Kingdom, he explained. It has also led to the rapid growth of the Kingdom’s digital economy at a rate three times faster than the global one.
Furthermore, Crown Prince Mohammed highlighted how Vision 2030 has touched every facet of life in the Kingdom, creating a flourishing civil society that is improving lives. He noted the vast improvements to quality of life, social mobility and inclusion, with women’s labor force participation having doubled since 2016.
Moving forward, the Kingdom’s global importance as a hub for transit, technology and trade will only increase, facilitated by new economic integration initiatives such as IMEC. Working with global partners, Saudi Arabia is building an economy of the future based on innovation, growth and opportunity, he stressed.
He reflected on Vision 2030 as a journey, not a destination, stating that Saudi Arabia has made significant strides but there is much more to do, creating compelling opportunities for collaboration, growth and development with its international partners.
