Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

 

 

 

 

After graduating from university, Mohammed spent several years in the private sector before becoming an aide to his father. He worked as a consultant for the Experts Commission, working for the Saudi Cabinet.

On 15 December 2009, at the age of 24, he entered politics as a special advisor to his father when the latter was the governor of Riyadh Province.

 

Mohammed was appointed crown prince on 21 June 2017, following the King's decision to make his son the heir to the throne.

On 27 September 2022, Mohammed was appointed as prime minister of Saudi Arabia by King Salman. Traditionally, the king has held the title of prime minister.

Mohammed's ideology has been described as nationalist and populist, with a conservative attitude towards politics, and a liberal stance on economic and social issues. It is said he has been heavily influenced by the views of his former adviser Saud al-Qahtani and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed. The Crown Prince has also been championing an Arab nationalist ideology domestically and through foreign policy.

Mohammed took the leadership in the restructuring of Saudi Arabia's economy, which he officially announced in April 2016 when he introduced Vision 2030, the country's strategic orientation for the next 15 years. Vision 2030 plans to reform Saudi Arabia's economy towards a more diversified and privatised structure. It details goals and measures in various fields, from developing non-oil revenues and privatization of the economy to e-government and sustainable development.

One of the major motives behind this economic restructure through Vision 2030 can be traced back to Saudi Arabia's reliance on a rentier economy, as a limit on oil resources makes its sustainability a problem in the future. While the country claims to own a proven reserve of 266.58 billion barrels of crude oil, the energy analyst Matthew R. Simmons estimates the true number to be far less, as the last non-Saudi report by the General Accounting Office in 1978 only mentioned 110 billion barrels.

At the inaugural Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh in October 2017, Mohammed announced plans for the creation of Neom, a $500 billion economic zone to cover an area of 26,000 square kilometres on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, extending into Jordan and Egypt. Neom aims to attract investment in sectors including renewable energy, biotechnology (especially genetically modified agriculture), robotics and advanced manufacturing. The announcement followed plans to develop a 34,000 square kilometre area across a lagoon of 50 islands on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastline into a luxury tourism destination with laws on a par with international standards. In a further effort to boost the tourism industry, in November 2017 it was announced that Saudi Arabia would start issuing tourist visas for foreigners, beginning in 2018.

In the last week of September 2018, Mohammed inaugurated the much-awaited $6.7bn high-speed railway line connecting Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities of Islam. The Haramain Express is 450 km line travelling up to 300 km/h that can transport around 60 million passengers annually. The commercial operations of the railway began on 11 October 2018.

In October 2018, Mohammed announced that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia's assets were approaching $400 billion and would pass $600 billion by 2020.

Mohammed announced a project to build Saudi Arabia's first nuclear reactor in November 2018. The kingdom aims to build 16 nuclear facilities over the next 20 years, despite the unholy poisoning of the land and build up of toxic radioactive waste that would entail. Efforts to diversify the Saudi energy sector also include wind and solar, including a 1.8 gigawatt solar plant announced in the same month as part of a long-term project in partnership with SoftBank.

PETROLEUM

Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer, has the second-largest amount of oil reserves in the world. On 28 September 2021, Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met with Mohammed in Saudi Arabia to discuss the high oil prices. In October 2022 in protest of Saudi Arabia cutting oil production, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Saudi Arabia knew the cut would "increase Russian revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions" and accused Saudi Arabia of "coercing" other oil producing countries to agree. The record-high energy prices were driven by a global surge in demand as the world quit the economic recession caused by COVID-19, particularly due to strong energy demand in Asia.

It is unclear if oil will be worth more in the long term, with renewables all over the world reducing oil demand. Perhaps to the point where it is relatively worthless. Except that oil is needed for chemicals and necessary plastic production in the medical world, etc. Thus, conserving oil reserves by developing renewables, represents a win-win investment opportunity. We would add here, that we are not advocates of single use plastic, for disposable packaging.

 

 

POLICIES

Mohammed established an entertainment authority that began hosting comedy shows, professional wrestling events, and monster truck rallies. In 2016, he shared his idea for "Green cards" for non-Saudi foreigners with Al Arabiya journalist Turki Aldakhil. In 2019 the Saudi cabinet approved a new residency scheme (Premium Residency) for foreigners. The scheme will enable expatriates to permanently reside, own property and invest in the Kingdom.

The first measures undertaken in April 2016 included new taxes and cuts in subsidies, a diversification plan, the creation of a $2 trillion Saudi sovereign wealth fund, and a series of strategic economic reforms called the National Transformation Programme. Mohammed's plans to raise capital for the sovereign wealth fund included selling off shares of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned petroleum and natural gas company, with the capital to be re-invested in other sectors such as to implement the diversification plans. In October 2017, the plan for Aramco's IPO listing was criticised by The Economist, which called it "a mess". Mohammed slashed the state budget, freezing government contracts and reducing the pay of civil employees as part of their austerity measures. That makes a lot of sense, especially reducing the pension bill, that can lead to long term borrowings and national debt.

PUBLIC INVESTMENT FUND

The Public Investment Fund (PIF; Arabic: صندوق الاستثمارات العامة) is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. It is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of US$776 billion (£538 billion). It was created in 1971 for the purpose of investing funds on behalf of the Government of Saudi Arabia. The wealth fund is controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler since 2015.

More than 60% of the fund's activities are within Saudi Arabia. Within Saudi Arabia, the fund's investments primarily go to private conglomerates owned by prominent Saudi business families who have close ties to the Saudi ruling family. Outside of Saudi Arabia, the fund's investments into prominent foreign assets such as Premier League football club Newcastle United.

In March 2015, oversight of PIF was moved from the Ministry of Finance to the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA). As part of this process, a new PIF was appointed, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The board says PIF is aligned with the government's Vision 2030 with the aim to diversify the economy. To bolster the resources of the PIF and help in the financing of investments into foreign companies such as Uber and Tesla, the PIF received cash from the Saudi Central Bank, issued debt, and benefitted from the proceeds of the privatisation of Saudi state assets.

In 2022, a 4% stake in ownership of Saudi Aramco was transferred to the PIF, which was repeated in 2023 as part of the funds plan to increase assets under management to over $1 trillion by 2025. The shares for the second 4% stake in 2023 were valued around $78 billion. The move was intended to take advantage of higher hydrocarbon prices towards funding the expansion of the PIF in its overarching goal to diversify investments.

A 2021 report by Global SWF found that PIF's Governance, Sustainability, and Resilience (GSR) score had risen by 12% to an overall score of 40% (out of 100%) that year. This was partially attributed to the fact that PIF had started to build a dedicated ESG (Environmental, Social, and Sustainability) team.

 

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES & TECHNOLOGY SHOWS

 

As an example of an event not that far from Saudi Arabia, is in Egypt. EGYPES 2024 aims to steer leadership in climate change and sustainable energy production, focusing on responsible transition. EGYPES 2024 provides a oasis of ideas among a barren desert, heralding unlimited renewable electricity, the host basking in untapped solar energy for green hydrogen via electrolyzers.

 

 

 

CONTACTS

Ministry of Interior
PO Box 11134
Riyadh - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Riyadh Tel: +966 11 4011111
Jeddah (Minister's Office): Tel: +966 2 6684000


Saudi Arabian Embassy 
30 Charles Street
London, W1J 5DZ 

Telephone: 020 7917 3000
Email: ukemb@mofa.gov.sa

The Embassy of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037

Tel: (202) 342-3800