Royal, who believes in change, is quietly transforming Kingdom

(This could get very interesting. Young Salman said, "Women drove camels in the time of Muhammed, why can't they drive cars?"

He'll be an excellent king.. and his time has come. Saudi Arabia is going to move forward rapidly)


Early last year, at a royal encampment in the oasis of Rawdat Khuraim, Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia visited his uncle, King Abdullah, in the monarch’s final days before entering a hospital.

Unbeknown to anyone outside the House of Saud, the two men, separated in age by 59 years, had a rocky history together. King Abdullah once banned his brash nephew, all of 26 at the time, from setting foot in the Ministry of Defense after rumors reached the royal court that the prince was disruptive and power-hungry.

Later, the pair grew close, bound by a shared belief that Saudi Arabia must fundamentally change, or else face ruin in a world that is trying to leave oil behind.

For two years, encouraged by the king, the prince had been quietly planning a major restructuring of Saudi Arabia’s government and economy, aiming to fulfill what he calls his generation’s “different dreams” for a postcarbon future. King Abdullah died shortly after his visit, in January 2015.

Prince Mohammed’s father, Salman, assumed the throne, named his son the deputy crown prince — second in line — and gave him unprecedented control over the state oil monopoly, the national investment fund, economic policy, and the Ministry of Defense.

That’s a larger portfolio than that of the crown prince, the only man ahead of him on the succession chart. Effectively, Prince Mohammed is today the power behind the world’s most powerful throne. Western diplomats in Riyadh call him Mr. Everything. He’s 31 years old.

“From the first 12 hours, decisions were issued,” says Prince Mohammed. “In the first 10 days, the entire government was restructured.” He spoke for eight hours over two interviews in Riyadh that provide a rare glimpse of the thinking of a new kind of Middle East potentate — one who tries to emulate Steve Jobs, credits video games with sparking ingenuity, and works 16-hour days in a land with no shortage of sinecures.

Last year there was near-panic among the prince’s advisers as they discovered Saudi Arabia was burning through its foreign reserves faster than anyone knew, with insolvency only two years away. Plummeting oil revenue had resulted in an almost $200 billion budget shortfall— a preview of a future in which the Saudis’ only viable export can no longer pay the bills, whether because of shale oil flooding the market or climate change policies. Historically, the kingdom has relied on the petroleum sector for 90 percent of the state budget, almost all its export earnings, and more than half its gross domestic product.

On April 25 the prince is scheduled to unveil his “Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” an historic plan encompassing broad economic and social changes. It includes the creation of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which will eventually hold more than $2 trillion in assets — enough to buy all of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Berkshire Hathaway, the world’s four largest public companies. The prince plans an IPO that could sell off “less than 5 percent” of Saudi Aramco, the national oil producer, which will be turned into the world’s biggest industrial conglomerate. The fund will diversify into nonpetroleum assets, hedging the Kingdom’s nearly total dependence on oil for revenue.

The tectonic moves “will technically make investments the source of Saudi government revenue, not oil,” the prince says. “So within 20 years, we will be an economy or state that doesn’t depend mainly on oil.”

continued

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/914406

 

He’s awakened most mornings by his kids, two boys and two girls, ranging in age from 1 to 6. That’s the last he sees of them. “Sometimes my wife gets upset with me because I put so much pressure on her for the programs that I want them to have,” he says. “I rely mainly on their mother for their upbringing.”

Prince Mohammed has only one wife and isn’t planning on marrying more, he says. His generation isn’t so into polygamy, he explains. Life is too busy, compared with past eras when farmers could work a few hours a day and warriors could “take spoils once a week and had a lot of spare time.” Working, sleeping, eating, and drinking don’t leave a lot of time to open another household, he says. “It’s tough [enough] living with one family.”

In Prince Mohammed, the US may find a sympathetic long-term ally in a chaotic region. After President Obama met the prince at Camp David last May, he said he found him “extremely knowledgeable, very smart, and wise beyond his years.”

The prince visited Obama at the White House in September to air his disapproval of the US-brokered nuclear deal with Iran, and the two men were likely to meet again on April 20 when Obama visits King Salman in Riyadh.

 

Look, Ronald Reagan bowed to Mao Zedong, Eisenhower bowed to Charles de Gaulle, and George W bowed, held hands, and kissed the Saudi King. I think we can assume that this new king can bring change to the middle east. Thank you, Margot for sharing this.

PS Oh, I forgot, Obama also bowed. I guess that the Repos think that it is a new thing to honor a foreign leader. Sorry, it is what civilized people do. I guess the Repo-people think that dishonoring world leaders is a good thing. That may work for their minions, but their echo chamber is not populated by people of the world, after all, this country is the only bastion of arrogance. We are exceptional!!! More than exceptional, we are the only way to exist!!

 

You're welcome.. I think KSA is ready for young Muhammed Bin Salman..

 

FYI............