Remarkable economic achievements mark 7th anniversary of crown prince’s pledge of allegiance

With the seventh anniversary of the pledge of allegiance of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is witnessing remarkable economic achievements.

The Kingdom’s economy grew 8.7 percent in 2022, the highest of all the Group of 20 leading and rich nations.

Saudi Vision 2030 has succeeded in providing housing solutions to 93,622 families and last year housed 90,837 families in their first home through the Sakani program.

The main goal of the program is to raise home ownership to 70 percent by 2030 from 47 percent in 2017. That rate rose to 62 percent in 2020 and the waiting time for obtaining a house fell from 15 years to zero.

Electronic payments, one of the financial sector development programs of Vision 2030, achieved its 70 percent target of total retail payments last year, up from 62 percent in 2022.

The increase was attributed to the significant growth of payments processed through national payment systems, which reached 10.8 billion transactions in 2023 compared to 8.7 billion a year earlier.

I believe that the economic achievements witnessed by Saudi Arabia would not have been possible without the wise and strong leadership of the crown prince, supported by his high ambition to achieve goals regardless of the challenges faced.

The Kingdom has also made huge strides in its tourism sector, with spending by inbound visitors in 2023 hitting a record high of SR135 billion ($36 billion), up 43 percent from a year earlier.

Also, Saudi Central Bank figures show that the tourism sector achieved a balance of payments surplus of SR48 billion in 2023, up 38 percent from 2022.

A UN Tourism Barometer report released in January showed that the number of inbound visitors to the Kingdom in 2023 was 56 percent higher than in 2019.

The value of foreign direct investment into the country in the fourth quarter of last year rose 16 percent from the previous three months to SR13 billion.

The Kingdom’s industrial sector has also witnessed significant growth under Vision 2030.

The number of factories in the country rose to 11,549 in 2023 from 7,206 in 2017, with total investments estimated at SR1.541 trillion. The National Industrial Strategy aims to increase the number of factories to 36,000 by 2035.

The overall unemployment rate for Saudi nationals fell to 7.7 percent in the final quarter of last year, from 8.6 percent in the previous three months.

In the same period, the unemployment rate for women fell to 13.7 percent from 16.3 percent in the previous quarter, while the rate for men remained unchanged at 4.6 percent.

I believe that the economic achievements witnessed by Saudi Arabia would not have been possible without the wise and strong leadership of the crown prince, supported by his high ambition to achieve goals regardless of the challenges faced.

• Talat Zaki Hafiz is an economist and financial analyst. X: @TalatHafiz