Vision 2030: Can Saudi Arabia Wean Itself off Oil? 

Neom is a fantastically stupid idea. Even if it could feed itself, it'll be hamstrung by design: cities radiate out from a central point for a good reason: transportation.

Great job indeed, just one small correction - the capital of SA is Riyadh, not Rider. :) It's read "ree-ya-d"

Debt to GDP for the UK isn't 85%, that's 2019's figure. The latest figure from the end of 2021 puts debt at 102.8% as a percentage of GDP.

Did he pronounce 'Riyadh' as 'Rider'? lol

Can't they just modernize/invest in already existing cities, as opposed to building giant buildings in the middle of the desert ?

Can you imagine the amount of just sand alone required for this scheme? ...and that sand doesn't come from the desert.

Norway should be an example to all oil rich countries. What Norway has done with their oil wealth is one of the smartest government moves anywhere. They will have oil money for generations even after they stop pumping the oil. I didn't realize you brought up Norway lol.

2:35 it’s Riyadh, not Rider

Great job as usual!

I am Saudi and I can say that we have technically succeeded in diversifying our economy after we announced the Saudi vision 2030 back in 2016, I am not saying that because I am defending my country but I am talking about what I have seen and amount of changes happening in my country, our agricultural sector before the vision 2030 was only contributing to the total GDP by 2% and now it makes up about 8% of the total GDP “keep in mind” that we are a desert country that’s a big achievement we made from the desert a place where you plant everything and anything, our tourism sector before the vision was only 2% of the total GDP and now it makes up about 5.3% of Saudi GDP our goal is to reach 10% by 2030, our military equipment spending decreased we were the 3rd country in the world in military equipment spending and now we are ranked in the 8th position and that’s because we started to manufacture the military equipment we were only manufacturing 2% of our military equipment needs before 4 years and it increased to 12% in 2021 and it is possible to reach above 20% at the end of this year our goal is to manufacture more than 50% by the year 2030, our total number of factories before the the vision was only 7k and now it increased to more than 11k we Saudis are witnessing the progression in each sector, our nonoil exports were only 10% of the Total exports and they became 26% of the total exports in 2021 our goal is to reach 50% by 2030, the vision is really working even if it was little slow it's really complicated to move a country that was fully dependent and known for oil to other resources it will take time and efforts but at least we are progressing, your content is amazing, keep going

No. Even without all their problems, they started way too late to avoid any casualties. Countries like the UAE and Qatar tried diversifying over a decade ago to varying degrees of success. Regardless, they saw the writing on the wall and at least made efforts to parlay their oil wealth into soft power. The Saudis have done nothing but squander their wealth on vanity projects, ludicrous military spending on US weapons to play their own version of Afghanistan, export their "my way or the highway" version of Islam that has caused a lot of suffering in the world and an entrenched welfare state that would make Sweden look like Somalia in terms of enablement. You could argue that MBS tried to fix the problem, but the most he's done from most sources is put up window dressings to placate the West (driving rights for women after he imprisions one of them) and engage in a modern day version of a CK2 torturefest. I highly doubt that Saudi Arabia will be ready for a future without oil anytime soon.

Where exactly is Rider? lol

Butchered the pronunciation of Riyadh

Great video!

TLDR are good channels, but man, they need an editor (spelling, pronunciation). I sense they are rushed into putting these out.

Awesome. Excellent channel. Appreciate your work. George from Ireland Eton college friend to you Thomas. He told you Truth politically in England Britain politically and Europe.

This is a very cool and insightful video! One thing though, it's not Raydah, it's Riyadh [Ree-Aadh].

The lake of info people have about oil demand And the lake of info of how much oil percentage we depend on oil is Amazing

Tell me you didn't pronounce Riyadh as "Ry-a-duh". 😂

When even Saudi Arabia is switching to renewable energy, it means oil use is about to decline

Hi great channel nice videos. Can you tell me what software you use when creating the sideshows?

Moroccan here. I don't think Saudi Arabia can ever get rid of their reliance toward oil soon. That's because with oil, they are immensely rich. And this means their population hardly carry any sense of needing education and self-reliance lessons. Don't forget most of Saudi Arabia's foreign workers are not only South Asians, but include millions of Arabs from the other Arab states (Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen, Lebanon, etc.), the same phenomenon also exists in UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. I used to study in Saudi Arabia as a teenager and while I respect the kingdom, I disapprove many of its idea, which are too radical and fail to address the grassroot problem. In Morocco, our country is also rich at other resources (but not oil), but we have to learn how to be ourselves first. And also, their attempt to diversify comes too late, they have taken it poorly.

The demand of oil imports globally is very diverse in distribution and power of it for the people and governments controlling the amount cost and what's given to us.

That megaproject looks like a very nice money laundry to me

The future is high-tech, if there is any area that countries should put a lot more focus on is that area as that is making up a sizeable part of the world economy and is only going to keep growing, on top of that, there are no limits to how far that industry can go, it's likely going to keep growing. Fossil fuels are one area that countries should really try to diversify away from and even thought it's a profitable industry for now, it's clearly going to be a dying industry over the coming decades, maybe much sooner with how Putin is using oil and gas as a political weapon as that could push the Europeans to produce alternative energy sources and I suspect a lot more countries are going to want to generate a lot more of its energy in their own countries because of energy security reasons. The irony is about that longer term, countries that produce no or very little fossil fuels could end up being the biggest winners because as they transition to alternative energy source, it would be like getting a massive windfall tax for those countries in savings by not having to import oil, gas and coal, whereas countries that produce a lot of fossil fuels are going to have a massive hole in their budget that they need to fill by other means, either those countries are going to have to become a lot more efficiency or the standard of living is going to take a big hit, the thing is about all this, countries that have little to no fossil fuels are in a good position for the future because those countries have done a lot of the reforms needed to be a lot more efficient, a prime example of that is a lot of EU countries, Japan and some others which stand to benefit the most with the transition to alternative energy sources because they are big importers of fossils now.

I would prefer to see a video on how succesfull has the plan been.

It appears that MbS has not yet realized that impractical infrastructure projects are NOT the key to economic success for any society.

Your pronunciation of "Riyadh" is wrong

Good content but every time you said Rider instead of Riyadh (Riyadh Arabic: الرياض, romanized: 'ar-Riyāḍ,) was making mean scream at the phone lol

Can you do a video on the rentier states on it's own ? For example, the political reliance on oil in upholding the dictatorships

If I were in their shoes, I would try to become a leader in digital services. One could build up an education system based on IT-services for example.

0:37 that good

Saudi should really export solar power because they are in the desert so surely they get more power from the sun and they can adapt their economy around the green revolution

Oh my days, did he just say Rider ? xD Come on bro

They can but it will take a lot of effort and compromises in terms of their beliefs.

Where the hell is "Rider" 😂 come on guys not checking how to say the name of the capital city on a 12 minute video on SA is not a good look.

A thank you.

Sorry, how did you pronounce Riyadh again?

Lmfao. I literally cannot believe people think that a 170km long city in the middle of a desert is a good idea. Fucking hell so many smooth brains in the comment section.

How are we going to diversify the economy? More extractive industries, and an ancient religious monument that greatly predates the existence of our country. Way to add value, guys, such innovative thinking!

I think its too late. Diverfication takes a generation also you need a particular combination of good education good economic desing and/or a very involved and compromise bussines sector willing to bet in that development the petrol states will face the same problem as many other primary sector economies extremly dependen on rent and extraction

Watch a TLDR video, skip the long commercial plug at the end. Rinse and repeat.

Their medieval reign should wither

Muslims will never let mecca be poor. No chance

KSA has harmain which is Mecca and madinah as long as they have harmain KSA economy wouldn't become a problem

Another major factor of why Saudi Arabia wants to diversify its markets is that they have literally the reverse problem of the United States. While the United States economy might be taking a hint, I guess to put it lightly. We had so many different industries in this country and to be fair, other countries are similar that there is always an opportunity for a job market even if those job market shift over time. Side of Arabia has this weird problem where basically most of their population is capable and highly educated but they only have really one business so most of their population is unemployed and the only way to get unemployment is to go to other countries. I'm short. Everyone wants to come to the United States, hence all of our immigration rose and in reverse everyone wants to leave Saudi Arabia.

No. I just saved you 12 minutes of your life.

Pronunciation of Riyadh is butchered. Or is that really how you say it??

Why are you pronouncing Riyadh as Rider? Those words aren't even remotely alike. The consonants aren't even in the same place. How the hell does Riyadh become Rider? It's not even the same consonants. At least pronounce the names of major cities with some semblance of correctness.

I really like your content, but an issue kept growing on me. You keep changing your volume during a sentence. It is hard to watch the video as the volume keep changing all the time. I only it's only one guy from the internet, but maybe a constructive criticism help you grow you this channel.

Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 ought to cosy up to China 🇨🇳 China would be an invaluable ally as far as infrastructure goes 👌

Without alternative to oil and gas. . i can't see any change

Where's Queen Elizabeth

People think this is a joke but they will have serious problems in the future. Their leaders know this but the average citizen has no clue. I hear this word diversifying way to much but for someone that knows a little bit of economics it’s not as easy as it sounds. Even if their oil last for another 100 years they will still be in some kind of trouble in the future. They are not like the other gulf countries they have a growing population which could be a good thing in the short term but could cause some trouble in the long term. I want someone to give me examples of how they could maintain their living standards without oil. They have a huge country with other resources such as gold and minerals they already export some of it now they could maybe export some of that aswell well into the future. The hard truth is Saudi Arabia will either be reliant on tourism Mecca Medina or natural resources. Their economy will for ever be resource export economy. They don’t have the skills or talent to create multi billion dollar companies if they did we would have Witnessed it by now with all this wealth but their country has not managed to create multi national companies. Let’s divide the world in to 4 sectors number 1 the west 2 China Vietnam India 3 south East Asia Malaysia Thailand and other nations in south east Asia. 4 Africa and South America. All these different regions have different economies. The west produces high end value products and services which the whole world buys. Africa has a weak economy it completely depends on natural resources exports so does South America. China India Vietnam produce low value goods in large numbers which the world needs and they are slowly pushing upwards in their chain of exports to high value goods. When oil runs out and the world probably won’t need much oil in the future maybe some but not much mostly in industry. Every sector has been taken where will Saudi Arabia fit in to in the world economy. My answer to that is tourism and other natural resources minerals stuff like that. As I said before their population has not got the drive or the ability to produce any high value goods or service the world requires their are way more intelligent nations like Korea japan Germany UK US israel and many more that will fill that spot and they already do. Who would buy a car made in Saudi Arabia when you can get one from japan or Germany. Who would services made in Saudi Arabia when you can buy them from India Israel or the UK. The whole reason I wrote this is because it’s so easy to use this word diversifying when in fact it’s not as easy as it sounds. Their population have come to expect a very high level of living which unfortunately is unrealistic in the long run because they don’t have a serous business plan or economic plan. One more thing is Islam countries around the world will hesitate to open up their economies to Saudi goods or services if they can even manage to create any goods or services that the world requires I highly doubt it. They have a serious problems ahead of them it won’t be visible for the average person now but in 50 to 70 years this issue will be household news.

Good take, but FWIW, the Saudi capital is pronounced Ree-Yad, not Rey-Duh

riyadh: ree-yaa-dh

Saudi Arabia isn't the world's largest oil producer, USA is. That too by quite some margin. Saudi Arabia does export more oil than the US though.

I doubt it

Build a wealth fund and invest in international tech/bio/chips/etc. Tech is something that can be built on any rock as long as there are knowledgeable people to improve and compete. If Saudi owns enough of a company to influence it's board, it can then have that company build branch offices in Saudi. If Saudi also invests in it's tech schools to turn out students who are qualified to compete, it can use it's money to build it's own silicon valley. If the companies Saudi invests in are profitable, it's investments will make money on top of bringing tech jobs to Saudi. If Saudi owns multiple large cap bio/tech/etc companies, it can encourage them to locate around it's top tech universities, thus creating a self perpetuating knowledge hub in one of it's cities. Any nation with money can do this, doesn't have to be oil wealth.

... well at least they're trying...

1.Biggest oil producer in the world is the US, not Saudi, 2.What do you mean by environmental damage? How is Saudi extraction more damaging than fracking (US) or oil drills in the ocean (Norway)? 3.Saudi biggest problem is population reliance on government subsidees coming from oil revenues. Until that is addressed nothing will change. And it cannot change since it is the leverage allowing the royal family to maintain power (indeed no revolutions in Saudi). That is the main issue.

Rider? What? Try pronouncing Riyadh again.

Sure they can as they are part owners of Wal-Mart, Amazon, Microsoft and many more major US companies.

US is the worlds largest oil producer

hahahah omg it's pronunced '' ree-Yad''

"2030" ...seen that around a lot lately.

Wish you took the time to know how to correctly pronounce Riyadh

Ree-yad-h not Ryda

Bro; thinks we have only deliver oil in our country. 😂😂😂😂

Dream are free and they are trying but will be very surprised if it’s successful

Regarding the tourism part, I thought the whole idea of vision 2030, was to diversity away from the religious tourists of the Haj.

8:44 Pretty sure Ulama just means the scholars. They are the ones who can pass Fatwas

I never knew Saudi Arabia's capital was Rye-duh.

10:01 'Rayda'? You mean Riyadh (the capital of saudi arabia) lol

SA will never give up it’s wonderful oil contracts so long as oil exists in the ground

Hey guys, please prepare one about the next Brazilian elections and the possibility for Bolsonaro to be re-elected?

We’re gonna need oil after we stop burning it. Almost everything around you is made of oil.

no there are just so many factors working against this: Due to power concentration in the royal court bad ideas that are popular will be implemented, good ideas that are not will be shot down Saudi Arabia NEEDS an export surplus to pay all the migrant workers The cities NEED AC at daytime and heating at night time- the power grid is always in high use, making green solution unfeasible

It’s Riyaadh not riyadh.

First we don't have to go to maca if we can't. Second it's الرياض not رايدا

Please get the pronunciation right it's really irritating but good job overall

I don't think NEOM is not just only the insane idea of Saudi Arabia. The country has also submitted bids to host the Women's Asian Cup in 2026, despite it has no grassroot and has failed to compete in a single qualification stage. This shows how much the Saudi logic can be - it is still being used to oil curse and won't get up anytime soon.

Yes, with sufficient ruthlessness and determination.

What else are they going to sell? Sand?

saudi arabia agriculture& aquaculure new huge export more than crude oil

Nuclear is green. But we *won't allow* countries we don't like to improve their power conditions.

I will be surprised if the saudis can pull it off.

Environmental costs from "profiting in oil"? How about an environmental costs from 'consumption of oil'. Two-way street, silly to condemn the hand that feeds you.

It's not 'Ryda', it's Riyadh pronounced 'Reeyaad'.

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that they're doing the exact same thing as before, exporting minerals. Sure, it might do something for them but you're not making anything. Why aren't they refining their fuel, making plastics, trying to start chip manufacturing or some industry that's making things. They should be giving loans to Saudi Arabia people to start a businesses to manufacture stuff. This project seems to me to be doomed for failure. How can anybody think this is really going to change anything? It's just more of the same in a different coat.

Biden's visit to "Rider"? Don't you mean Riyadh pronounced "Ree-add"

Rider? haha.. Its Riyadh...

How the fuck can you still not pronounce Riyadh?

Wait I though NEOM was just a concept. A terrible one at that.

No.

Raida?

Lol they also invested in wework☠️

nope. decades long of easy money, hard to change in just a few years.

You use Dutch Disease and talk about currency but isn’t Saudi Oil sold in dollars? That’s the whole petrodollar thing.

You make it sound like drifting away from oil into mining or tourism is good news for the planet ... You know it's not, do you ?