Saudi Arabia Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to lay out a major plan for the future of the kingdom's economy Monday, reports say.
The 30-year-old son of King Salman told Bloomberg he will introduce his "Saudi Vision 2030," a comprehensive strategy to diversify the kingdom's economy and create more jobs. The prince said he would release details on the budget and economic policies six weeks after the initial announcement in the form of his National Transformation Plan.
Saudi stocks have suffered at the whim of crude oil prices, which fell this year to its lowest point in a decade. The prince, who is second in line to the throne, leads the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, which oversees the country's finance, oil and economic agencies.
The long-term plan involves changes to the kingdom's own oil company, Saudi Aramco, to transform it into an energy and industrial conglomerate—falling in line with the prince's goal of raising non-oil revenue by $100 billion by 2020, Bloomberg reported. He also plans to sell a small portion, less than 5%, of the parent company in an initial public offering and transfer the company to the country's Public Investment Fund, which the Council for Economic and Development Affairs oversees.
This structural changes, the prince said, would be key in building an economy reliant on stocks rather than crude oil.
Among the reforms expected in the prince's vision are an efficiency campaign, an expansion of the private sector outside of the oil industry and changes to the kingdom's foreign assets, Reuters reported.
The prince's reform effort is not the first to transform Saudi Arabia's economy, Reuters reported. Previous reforms in recent decades have yielded modest results at best. But the prince's proposal might be boldest yet since the founding of the kingdom.
