Saudi Vision 2030 is not an executive program that can be reduced to particular projects or deadlines, nor achievements assessed through the logic inaugurations, closures, and delays. Profoundly, this Vision is an intellectual–cultural project that has rearranged the relationship of Saudi individuals with themselves, between society and meaning, of and the state and its role. Examining it from outside this framework does this Vision a double injustice: first, by confining it to the compartmental and the fleeting; second, by overlooking its structural impact on consciousness and behavior.
The Vision has reformulated the central questions. “What do we advance?" to “Who are we? And what can we create?” This shift in the center of gravity, and it is the nucleus of any genuine renaissance. States do not change through decisions alone; changing the minds that receive the decisions is equally crucial. The Vision worked, with deep awareness, precisely at this level: the level of the Saudi mindset, in language, behavior, and self-representation.
The language of Saudis has changed, and this is not a superficial matter. Language is both the mirror of consciousness and its instrument. Competitiveness, added value, innovation, sustainability, impact, and leadership are no longer merely institutional buzzwords; they have entered everyday language. When language changes, cerebral maps change. Success is no longer defined as a professional position or a social privilege, becoming defined by the ability to add value and transform knowledge into action. This linguistic shift is among the most profound and consequential effects of the Vision, because it generates new behavior organically.
This transformation is more apparent in education. Reforming curricula was not an end in itself, but a gateway for redefining students. Introducing philosophy and critical thinking, linking education to the labor market and scientific research, and broadening options all reflect a vision that sees students as active producers of knowledge rather than passive recipients. School is no longer a place for drilling certainties; it has become a space for unpacking questions and building skills. From this prism, one can understand the growing scientific competition among male and female students not as a celebration but as the logical outcome of the new educational environment.
When students from various regions of the Kingdom win scientific awards in medicine, mathematics, energy, physics, and the environment, the prize ceases to be the point itself; excellence becomes commonplace. Excellence, here, is no longer an exception to be celebrated once but an endless path. This is the difference between a society that produces stars and a society that builds the foundations of excellence. The Vision worked from bottom-up.
Economically, figures cannot be read without their philosophical context. Diversification, empowering the private sector, recalibrating priorities, and regulating markets are not merely an accounting exercise. They are a manifestation of a conception that sees the economy as a tool for building capacities, not subordinating the people to the economy.
The Vision does not seek abstract quantitative growth but meaningful growth that is reflected in quality of life and in society’s capacity to adapt and produce. For this reason, review and reassessment are not signs of confusion, but part of a state mindset that knows efficiency to be the highest political and economic value in an age of major transformations.
On the cultural and social level, Vision 2030 has reconsidered the question of identity, not as a conflict but as a calm reclamation. Identity, here, is neither a slogan nor a form of closure; it is a dynamic interaction between history and the future. Celebrating heritage, language, the arts, and regional diversity is no longer an exercise in nostalgia, but of a new awareness that sees plurality as a national treasure. This resurging identity does not entail exclusion and requires no ideological brackets, because it is tied to a clear national project in which the state is the unifying framework and the highest meaning.
Politically, this internal transformation has been reflected in a more confident and balanced international presence. A state that rebuilds the mind of its society, invests in knowledge, and manages its identity well inevitably becomes more capable, not because it seeks a role, but because a role takes shape when material and symbolic sources of power accumulate together.
This is the Vision 2030 that many overlook. It is not a story of projects, but a story of human beings. It is a vision that has redefined the relationship between knowledge and responsibility, between ambition and identity, and between the individual and the homeland. The changes in language, behavior, and expectations we are currently seeing are not side effects; they are the deepest achievements. Major transformations do not begin from the without but from within: from a mind that dares to redefine itself, and from a society that has decided to shape its era, not merely bear witness to it.
