Saudi Investment Summit Falls Short As Vision 2030 Stutters

26 Oct 2018 Issue: 61 / 43 By: Jamie Ingram

Saudi Arabia’s efforts over the past two years to diversify the economy, jumpstart the private sector and reduce unemployment have stuttered. This week’s investment summit in Riyadh was meant to rejuvenate Vision 2030, but was derailed by the ongoing Khashoggi scandal.

This week’s Future Investment Initiative (FII) was meant to be a key staging post towards Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. The elite of the global business community were to gather in Riyadh for three days from 23 October and commit to investing billions of dollars in the kingdom. Instead, the event has been overshadowed by the continuing fallout from the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul (MEES, 26 October).

Riyadh’s primary goal for FII was to secure investment for initiatives under the umbrella of Crown Prince Muhammad’s Vision 2030, an ambitious project to reform the economy and end its dependency on oil. In a Bloomberg interview earlier this month the Crown Prince said “we believe we will have an amazing deal in October…It will be in FII and it’s far away from oil…this is in Saudi Arabia with big numbers.” (CONTINUED - 1074 WORDS)