Three years is not really a very long time in the history of any country, but since ascending the throne in 2005, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has initiated a remarkable range of construction projects, any one of which by itself would have been thought transformational.
The king’s vision has been to capitalize on Saudi Arabia’s recent membership in the World Trade Organization to position the Kingdom as a global economic player, able not only to make investments of its hydrocarbon earnings but also to attract investment inflows from overseas to develop the local economy and pursue the all-important goal of diversifying the Kingdom’s productive base.
Thus, the four huge economic cities of Hail, Jizan, Madinah and Rabigh are slated to attract investments of some SR300 billion and create over a million jobs. With outside investors will come technology transfer, management know-how and access to new international markets for the goods and services that will be produced in the new cities. It is also the king’s idea that not only will they be a new powerhouse for economic growth but they will also represent a breakthrough in urban design, drawing on the best international architectural practices.
Crucial to the king’s thinking has been the appreciation that sustainable economic achievement and job creation cannot be obtained without comparable attention to intellectual needs. Thus another project close to his heart has been the creation of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) at Thuwal near Jeddah. It is his conviction that KAUST must aim from the outset to establish itself as a center of excellence, one which will attract the best teachers from around the world to educate and lead ground-breaking research with outstanding students, not only Saudis but from the Muslim world and beyond.
In these three busy years, the king has also been extremely active on the international stage. Last month, King Abdullah promoted and hosted an international conference in Jeddah to examine the challenges of high demand for oil and its unprecedented high prices. The Arab Peace Plan for a just and lasting settlement for the Palestinians, proposed by King Abdullah when he was still crown prince, remains the touchstone for future negotiations and the proposals around which the largest degree of international support has formed. Meanwhile his efforts to heal the internal Palestinian rifts continue to offer a promising route toward ending divisions which in no way serve the future of Palestinians.
Nor has the king neglected Islamic causes, a fact illustrated by his receipt of the King Faisal Prize for Service to Islam. Not the least of his concerns has been the care and development of the Two Holy Mosques to which he has already devoted SR14 billion in expansion projects. It is also notable that King Abdullah has taken a lead in proposing interfaith dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews to promote greater understanding and tolerance.
If these three remarkable first years are a measure of the future, then the Kingdom is indeed embarked on an unprecedented and exciting period of intellectual and economic growth.
