Saudi Arabia is about to enter a critical period. In question is
whether the modernizers will be able to sustain the drive towards a
market-oriented, private-sector-driven economy favourable to
foreign investment or whether the kingdom will remain
inward-looking and government-dominated.
The evidence at present is finely balanced but the consensus among
western and Saudi bankers is that ultimately the government has
little choice. It needs foreign investment to provide a significant
proportion of the $175 billion required in the next 20 years to
meet the country's power and water needs and it needs the private
sector to provide jobs for young Saudis. With 73% of the population
aged under 29, including 38% born since the Gulf War, that
requirement will become even greater in the next decade.
However, many initiatives, which bankers had expected to be well
advanced by now, remain either blocked by social conservatives,
mired in the Saudi bureaucracy...
