Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman reassured friends and countered critics in a comprehensive and confident interview published last night by Bloomberg.
He said President Trump’s speech in Mississippi on 3 October in which he said Saudi Arabia might not last two weeks without American military support was inaccurate but would not undermine Saudi relations with the US.
“If you look at the picture overall, you have 99 per cent of good things and one bad issue,” he said. “I love working with him (Trump).”
Saudi Arabia’s increased oil production to 10.7m barrels a day (b/d) to offset declines in Iranian output and has spare capacity of 1.3m b/d.
The Saudi Aramco IPO has been delayed to allow time for the company to acquire 70 per cent of Sabic and will take place in 2020 or in early 2021. It will be valued at $2trn or more.
The Public Investment Fund’s (PIF’s) assets, now close to $400bn, will rise to $600bn ahead of the 2020 target date. It will double its initial $45bn investment in the Softbank Vision Fund. Work on the 200GW Softbank solar programme will start next year, as will construction of the first phase of Neom City, due for completion in 2025.
The economy will be stimulated by higher capital spending and investment by the PIF and a new development fund. The kingdom’s gas, electricity and water price reforms are complete and government spending this year will rise by around 10 per cent. The Citizen’s Account system of targeted welfare payments is under review. More than 20 government services will be privatised in 2019. Unemployment, now about 13 per cent, disproportionately affects women and is targeted to fall to 7 per cent in 2030.
The corruption crackdown which involved arrests in 2017 has not damaged foreign direct investment which will rise by about 90 per cent this year. About $35bn has been recovered and the process will be completed in two years. Only eight people are still detained.
Jamal Khashoggi is not in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and the Turkish government can search it. About 1,500 people have been arrested in the past three years in a crackdown on terrorism and foreign subversion. People are free to speak openly to the media and the overwhelming majority of Saudi Arabians support the government and its reforms. Male guardianship of women is being reviewed in collaboration with the Senior Council of Ulema.
The kingdom hopes the conflict in Yemen will end soon but the Saudi Arabia will not tolerate a new Hezbollah-style group capable of interrupting the sea route where about 15 per cent of world trade passes. Mistakes have been made during the war but the kingdom won’t jeopardise its national security for the sake of relations with foreign countries.
“I am the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and I am trying to do the best that I can do through my position as the crown prince and the deputy prime minister of Saudi Arabia,” he said. “Whatever serves the Saudi people and Saudi Arabia as a country, I will do it with full force, regardless of the impressions that it will create about me. If it’s good, thank you, that’s great. If it’s bad, I will try to clarify myself. If it works, good, if it doesn’t work I have to do what’s good for my country and for my people.”