A majority of C-suite executives in Saudi Arabia are optimistic about the country’s long-term economic prospects, according to a new survey from Oxford Business Group.
According to the survey, 82 percent of business leaders said they were confident that the kingdom would successfully achieve the targets laid out in Vision 2030.
The survey also revealed that 15 percent of respondents believe that manufacturing will drive non-oil growth in the short to medium term, compared to 12 percent who said tourism.
Additionally, 62 percent of executives said that their expectations for local business conditions over the next 12 months are ‘positive’ or ‘very positive’.
A year after the implementation of value-added tax (VAT) in Saudi Arabia, four-fifths of business leaders said they thought the kingdom’s tax climate was competitive or very competitive on a global scale, with less than 10 percent describing it as uncompetitive or very uncompetitive.
Many executives expressed concern that external factors could affect the country’s economic plans, with 65 percent identifying regional political volatility as the event most likely to weight on the local economy, compared to slowing demand growth in China (13 percent) and multiple Fed rate hikes (7 percent).
