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Al-Jadaan at WEF: Saudi Arabia achieves $200 in investment returns for every dollar it spent

DAVOS — Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said that Saudi Arabia has set a target of $100 as a return on investment for every dollar allocated in the budget, and succeeded in achieving double returns amounting to $200. Al-Jadaan made the remarks while attending a dialogue session titled "Challenges of Emerging Economies" at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.

Al-Jadaan said that The Kingdom's Vision 2030 paved the way for fundamental economic reforms. "These reforms had been absolutely necessary for the Saudi economy to enjoy flexibility, and implementation of these reforms have contributed to doubling our successes," he said.

Al-Jadaan referred to the program to raise the efficiency of government spending that was launched in 2017 and yielded great results, as private investments grew, relative to the GDP, by more than 44 percent between 2017 and 2024.

The minister encouraged all countries to invest in government efficiency as it achieves amazing results. "This requires the presence of very strong government institutions within the government that cooperate with the private sector. The state can change goals and strategies, but on a condition that it is able to make the matter more efficient," he said.

Al-Jadaan underlined the need to be very careful while dealing with economic resilience. "Many of the resilience initiatives that we need to do at the economic level may not achieve growth in GDP or even show some returns on spending, but their fruits appear during difficult times," he said while noting that this is exactly what happened in the Kingdom during the coronavirus pandemic period. "Saudi Arabia was among the best performing economies in the world during the pandemic period as we spent more than half of what the world spent during the pandemic. The Saudi economy shrank less than half of the average contraction of the global economy, and then recovered quickly the following year," he pointed out.

Al-Jadaan noted that the Kingdom has succeeded in mobilizing all segments of society behind its Vision 2030, with a focus on enhancing human capital, which has contributed to achieving positive results, especially with the presence of a young generation ambitious to achieve change. "Many countries in the world suffer from their inability to develop long-term plans and make difficult decisions, but in the Kingdom we mobilized the people behind Vision 2030, and this is what made the vision achieve very wonderful results," he added.