What Latin America can learn from Saudi Arabia

(Photo: Saudi Press Agency, SPA)

Saudi Arabia is a racist, misogynistic, and repressive Islamic fundamentalist kingdom that shouldn’t be held as an example for almost anything. But there is one thing that Latin America could learn from it: The country has laid out a concrete plan to end its oil dependence by 2030.

The news went totally unnoticed in Latin America, where most countries depend on just one or two commodities for their livelihood and are now suffering an economic crisis because of the world collapse of prices of oil, minerals, grains, and other commodities. But at a time when most international economists predict that new technologies will doom the prices of oil and other commodities for a long time, the region should take a close look at what the Saudis are doing.

Last month, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled an economic-modernization plan entitled “Vision 2030” aimed at ending what he called the kingdom’s “addiction” to oil. “We will not allow our country ever to be at the mercy of commodity-price volatility or external markets, ” he told reporters.

The plan sets concrete targets to increase non-oil exports, competitiveness standards, and education levels by 2030. To finance its economic diversification, Saudi Arabia plans to sell less than 5 percent of its state-owned Saudi Aramco oil company. The sale would generate enough funds to allow the Saudi regime to invest heavily in non-oil sectors, technology, and education.

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