Open for business

For some time now I’ve been taking a solar-powered shuttle provided free at the Villar Group’s Evia Lifestyle Center along Daanghari in Las Piñas. The ride is air-conditioned, impressively smooth and quiet.

In Intramuros, electric tricycles are rapidly replacing the regular tricycles and trisikad. Other electric vehicles are becoming ubiquitous all over Metro Manila and urban centers such as Cebu.

A colleague said one concern of a friend who owns an e-vehicle is that it’s so quiet pedestrians can’t hear it coming and don’t get out of the way when crossing the street.

The green fuels are cheaper (although the required initial investment is steep) and of course they are good for the environment. The world looks headed inexorably toward a future of cleaner fuels.

It’s good news for the planet, but disastrous news for the economies that were powered for decades by crude oil. What are they doing in the face of a bleak future?

Saudi Arabia, reputed to have the world’s second largest oil reserves (after Venezuela) and one of the top 10 exporters, isn’t sitting around waiting for the sky to fall.

Its heir to the throne, Prince Mohammad bin Salman, has unveiled a wide-ranging reform agenda dubbed Saudi Vision 2030, which aims among other things to reduce the Middle Eastern kingdom’s dependence on oil and implement broad social and economic changes.

“Reform or perish” is a common admonition, and it’s supposed to be the principle behind the latest efforts in our country to change the Constitution and shift to a federal form of government.

In working for national survival, we might take some inspiration from the radical changes now sweeping Saudi Arabia, host to about a million overseas Filipino workers.

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Last Friday, Saudi Ambassador Abdullah N.A. Al Bussairy visited The STAR for a chat and told us that under Vision 2030, they are shifting their export focus from oil to minerals including gold, silver and other commodities.

The kingdom is also opening its arms to foreign investors. Unlike in the Philippines, the ambassador said investment in Saudi Arabia can be 100 percent foreign-owned.

Even China allows 100 percent foreign ownership of certain businesses. Only the state owns land in the communist country, but land can be “owned” for up to 70 years for residential purposes and 40 years for commercial. Consider where such investment policies brought China.

And, like China when its dizzying double-digit, export-powered growth began decelerating to its current single-digit rate, the Saudis are pushing tourism.

Relaxed visa rules will soon be announced for tourists, according to Ambassador Al Bussairy. The kingdom is also inviting foreigners to invest in tourism and other industries, with attractive incentives offered, including facilitation for express business processing. Last year, the kingdom announced that strategic foreign investors would be allowed to own up to five percent of oil giant Saudi Aramco.

Also getting a boost is the entertainment sector, to create job opportunities particularly for the young.

In October 2017, Crown Prince Salman unveiled a $500-billion plan to develop a business, industrial and tourism mecca by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. The zone will be a gateway to the planned King Salman Bridge linking Saudi Arabia and Egypt. To be developed in a 26,500-square-meter area, the zone is dubbed NEOM Mega City – a “destination for the future.” NEOM is a term created from Greek and Arabic, and reportedly means “new future.”

Ambassador Al Bussairy said foreign investors can bring in workers from anywhere in the world.

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Elevated as heir to the throne in June last year, Salman, 32, has begun implementing sweeping economic and social changes.

His Vision 2030 was launched amid softening international oil prices. While the world will continue depending on fossil fuels for many more years, the downtrend in crude prices, with occasional spikes, looks irreversible.

Under Vision 2030, any foreigner can invest in education, health and social services, information technology, transport in its all forms, industrial projects with a capital above 100 million Saudi riyals, consultancy firms, financial services, construction as well as world class restaurants.

The kingdom under the leadership of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has launched a crackdown on graft and detained some princes and ministers on charges of corruption.

Prince Salman espouses a “moderate Islam” and has allowed women to exercise rights they have not enjoyed since the kingdom was created. Saudi women can now drive, watch sports events in stadiums and go to theaters. They are being appointed to sensitive and managerial positions in both the public and private sectors. Thirty women have been appointed by the king to work with a consultative body crafting laws to promote the welfare of women.

“Radical changes are now being implemented to make some adjustments in government to make it more flexible,” Ambassador Al Bussairy told us.

We asked him how the Saudis are taking the reforms, especially regarding women.

“The Saudi people are supportive,” he replied. “I am also supportive.”

A majority of the men, he noted with a grin, are glad that they need not hire drivers for the women in their family.

Vision 2030 aims to generate up to $160 billion in non-oil revenue by 2020 and $266 billion by 2030. Prince Salman aims to build a sovereign wealth fund worth a staggering $3 trillion – the world’s largest.

Saudi Arabia is open for business.

We should be able to say the same in our current reform efforts… and mean it.