Many countries have experienced economic problems similar to ours and have succeeded in solving them. For our economy to improve, we must take the right decision at the right time. This should have been done long ago in such areas as foreign investment, privatization, unemployment and Saudization, budget deficits and weak economic growth.
During a visit to the Kingdom, an American executive cited 10 legal and administrative obstacles facing foreign investors. Returning to the country 10 years later, he found the same obstacles still in place. No action had been taken to remove them.
For 40 years now, experts have been warning against prioritizing college education and advising universities not to admit large numbers of students majoring in subjects not needed by the job market. The result of not listening to the experts is that Saudi doctors now account for only 10 percent of the country’s medical staff. We continue to suffer major shortages of Saudi engineers and technicians while our universities simply produce armies of unemployable graduates and insist on students continuing to major in subjects that landed their predecessors nowhere.
One reason preventing people from taking the right decisions at the right time is fear of the consequences such a decision may have in the future. When the Kingdom decided to build the industrial cities of Jubail and Yanbu — which in a few years became the country’s industrial hub — and set up the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), the project was met with a great deal of suspicion and doubt. Just imagine how the Kingdom would look today without those two pioneering projects.
Precious chances were lost as a result of our unnecessary hesitation. Take, for example, membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Until 1995 joining the WTO was easy. Everyone was aware that joining the international body was an indispensable requirement for doing international business. Everyone was aware that in time membership would become more complicated and more expensive. Once again, however, unnecessary caution and hesitation prevailed over bravery and courage and we missed a historic opportunity.
Privatization is another example. For the past 15 years, privatization has been prescribed as a remedy for our economic woes with its recommendation included in every economic plan. Another problem is the insistence that economic matters be decided by unanimous decisions. Raising even the slightest reservation will mean freezing the matter. It is these pointless practices that led one Western writer to describe the Kingdom as the largest bureaucracy in the world. In the end, if the patient is not going to take the prescribed medicine, then going to the doctor was a complete waste of time.
Arab News From the Local Press 20 October 2003
