RIYADH: Ever since Saudi Arabia vowed to diversify its sources of income in efforts to cut its dependence on oil, the government underwent major reshuffles in the past months, driving its citizens as well as the international media to witness the Kingdom’s will to modernize. Saudi Arabia traditionally relies on oil for most of its revenue. The government recently revealed the green card policy, fees to exceed worker quotas and a value-added tax that is soon to be introduced and will generate SR10 billion each. Subsidy reforms further are expected to generate SR30 billion. Other measures will be implemented to generate a total of SR100 billion per year in non-oil revenue in the next five years.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals has been transformed into the Ministry of Energy, Industry And Mineral Resources, since the architect of the Vision 2030 Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense, announced his decry against Saudi Arabia’s “addiction” to oil, blaming it for delaying other sectors to develop in the past years.
The Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources seeks to increase non-oil commodities exports to SR330 billion by 2020. It also aims to attract investors, ending a recent trip to China and Japan where cooperation was made in a wide range of sectors last month. Chinese investors were invited to seek opportunities in e-commerce, transportation, logistics and information technology, among others. This goes in line with the National Transformation Plan that revealed plans to partner with the private sector to develop the telecommunications and information technology infrastructure and bring about a digital transformation.
