Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia is set to announce on Monday its post-oil era vision or what is known as “Vision 2030” previously unveiled by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in an interview with Bloomberg earlier in April.
The “Vision 2030” is a comprehensive economic and social plan and roadmap that is expected to prepare the Kingdom for an era that does not depend or rely heavily on oil. It also includes the highly-anticipated National Transformation Plan (NTP).
The deputy crown prince previously stated that NTP will include asset sales, tax hikes, spending cuts, changes to the way the state manages its financial reserves, an efficiency drive, in addition to a bigger role for the private sector.
The plan follows a sharp drop in oil prices by more than 60% since 2014.
Bin Salman also announced the Kingdom’s plan to create a $2 trillion Public Investment Fund (PIF) for the post-oil era economy, according to Bloomberg, which added that PIF will aim boosting foreign investments from the current 5% to 50% by 2020.
The plan also includes the initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Aramco, one of the largest oil producers in the world. It is expected that a part of the company will put up for public subscription.
It may be a global IPO, the deputy crown prince has said, adding that the Saudi oil firm will be transformed into an industrial conglomerate specialising in the production of energy, not only oil and gas.
The plan is set to make Aramco the largest refining company and to surpass Exxon Mobil by expanding in Asia and boosting the production of petrochemicals.
The “2030 Vision” is expected to entail new programmes for the privatisation of various healthcare, education and governmental utilities, a step that will require more contribution from the private sector to provide better services to citizens and investors alike.
