In an economic report prepared by its Center for Economic Studies, the Council of Saudi Chambers affirmed that the resilience of the Saudi economy and its capabilities, potential, and massive investment programs have made it one of the most attractive and stable economies and qualified the Kingdom to join the G20, which comprises the 20 strongest economies in the world, thanks to the support and guidance of the wise leadership—may God support them.

An Economy That Has Maintained Its Strength and Stability

In its report issued on the occasion of the Kingdom’s National Day, the Federation explained that the Saudi economy has managed to maintain its strength, stability, and growth even amid the COVID-19 pandemic that paralyzed the global economy, thanks to its high resilience, the gains of Vision 2030, and significant government support for the economy and the business sector during the pandemic, while the Kingdom led the world toward economic recovery from the pandemic’s repercussions through its chairmanship and hosting of the G20 Leaders" Summit last year and its role in launching global initiatives to mitigate the massive negative impacts on the economies of developing and poor countries, where a program was approved to supportglobal efforts to address them, valued at $21 billion, and the agreement to take exceptional measures to support the economies of developing countries by injecting more than $11 trillion to support individuals and businesses, in addition to expanding social safety nets.

The Saudi economy is among the fastest to recover from the pandemic’s repercussions, according to international indicators, with the Kingdom ranking second globally, tied with China, on the Japanese Nikkei COVID-19 Recovery Index out of 121 countries, and 13th out of 184 countries in the Global COVID Index (GCI) adopted by the World Health Organization. Reports also noted the stabilization of labor market conditions at the start of the second half of 2021,with improvements in new orders, production, employment, and inventory indices, and the continued achievement of a trade surplus in June 2021, amounting to 38.69 billion riyals—the highest in 17 months, bringing the total since the beginning of the year to 170.7 billion riyals. Furthermore, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows for the full year 2020 indicate growth of approximately 20%, The unemployment rate also fell at the end of the first quarter of 2021 to 11.71%, down from 12.61% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020.

More than 770 reforms to the business and investment environment

The report highlighted the Kingdom’s economic successes on the global stage and the significant development in the legislative system through the issuance of more than 770 reforms that had a profound impact on improving the competitiveness of the Kingdom’s business and investment environments, which contributed to the Kingdom’s rise from 26th to 24th place in the 2020 Global Competitiveness Yearbook. The Kingdom also advanced in the “Women, Business, and the Law, 2021” from 70.6 out of 100 in 2020 to 80 in 2021, with the employment rate of Saudi women in the private sector growing by 31.31%, and jumping by 41.1% in the government sector. The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) has also advanced to become one of the top 10 stock exchanges worldwide, and the Kingdom advanced to 12th place in the Venture Capital Availability Index, third globally in the Minority Investor Protection Index, first in digital competitiveness among G20 countries, and first in 5G internet speed.

200 billion riyals to support the private sector

The report affirmed that the Saudi private sector continues to play a strong role as an effective partner in the comprehensive development process and the realization of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, This is attributed to the record growth achieved by the non-oil private sector at 11.11%, its best growth in a decade, as the national private sector witnessed significant development in its business environment and a substantial increase in its small, medium, and large-scale projects, In addition to the Public Investment Fund’s increased contribution to bolstering the national private sector’s role through the launch of a series of mega-projects such as the establishment of Neom and the launch of The Line, as well as the initiation of mega-projects like Amala, and the Red Sea, and Qiddiya, as well as the establishment of numerous mega-companies to develop economic sectors that contribute to expanding and diversifying the economic base and launching promising sectors such as tourism, entertainment, sports, and energy, as well as the major support programs launched by the state in line with the Vision to stimulate the sector’s growth, including the Private Sector Stimulus Program and the allocation of 200 billion riyals to support the private sector, in addition to support provided during the pandemic.
He predicted that the private sector would witness significant qualitative leaps following the approval of numerous programs designed to increase its economic and social contribution and reinforce the trend toward this sector taking the lead in achieving sustainable economic growth, as the Privatization Program and the Partner Program were launched.

The report highlighted the most significant achievements of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which included raising the homeownership rate to 60%, and the launch of the “electronic tourist visa,” which can be obtained online in minutes. The tourism sector also achieved 141% growth, and the number of companies operating in the entertainment sector doubled, reaching more than 1,000 companies, thereby creating more than 101,000 jobs by the end of 2020 in the entertainment sector. Additionally, mega projects were announced to preserve the environment, the most recent of which are the “Green Saudi” and “Green Middle East.” The assets of the Public Investment Fund doubled to reach approximately 1.5 trillion riyals, and the number of factories increased by 381% to 9,984 factories, and the expansion of fiber-optic network coverage, with 3.5 million homes in urban areas covered by fiber-optic networks in 2020.