KSA Vision 2030 And Sustainable Development Goals: A Comparison
Economic Development Goals of KSA Vision 2030
Discuss About The Environmental Management And Practices.
The KSA vision2030 is the vision of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the future. On the economic front the KSA have certain visions to create a thriving economy for the country. Firstly, to raise the non-oil exports share in non-oil GDO to 50% from the current 16%. Secondly, to ensure that their kingdom is a regional leader by raising their global rank from 49 to 25 in the Logistics Performance Index (Fakeeh 2016). Thirdly, to increase the contribution of the private sector to 65% from 40% of GDP. Fourthly, to raise the FDI level from 3.8% to 5.7% of GDP. Fifthly, to raise their rank from 25 to be among the top 10 countries on the Global Competitiveness Index. Sixthly, to increase the assets of the Public Investment Fund from SAR 600 billion to over 7 trillion. Seventhly, to expand the localization of oil and gas sectors from 40% to 75%. Eighthly, to move from being the 19th largest economy in the world to the top 15 (Yamada 2016). Ninthly, to increase the participation of women in the workplace from 22% to 30%. Tenthly, to increase the contribution of SME from 20% to 35%. Eleventh, to lower the unemployment rate to 7% from 11.6%. Next, on the societal front the KSA have different visions to create a vibrant society for the country. Firstly, to increase the average life expectancy to 80 years. Secondly, to rise from being 26 to 10 in the Social Capital Index. Thirdly, to ensure that three cities of KSA are recognized among the top 100 cities in the world. Fourthly, to upgrade the ratio of the individuals who exercise at least once in a week to 40%. Fifthly, to increase the expenditure of households on cultural and entertainment activities inside KSA to 6%. Sixthly, to increase the number of heritage sites in Saudi with UNESCO. Seventhly, to increase the capacity to welcome the number of Umrah visitors every year to 30 million from the current 8 million. On the development front the KSA have set certain vision which would help them to make it an ambitious nation (Alshuaibi 2017). Firstly, to reassemble about one million volunteers every year as compared to the 11,000 currently. Secondly, to increase the saving if every household from 6% to 10% of the total income of that household. Thirdly, to increase the contribution of the non-profit sector 5% from the current less than 1%. Fourthly, to increase the ranking from the current position of 36 to being among the top five nations on the E-Government Survey Index. Fifthly, to raise the revenue of non-oil government to SAR 1 Trillion from SAR 163 billion (Yezli et al. 2017). Sixthly, to increase the ranking from 80 to 20 in the Government Effectiveness Index. These abovementioned are the KSA visions of 2030 which deals with the economical, societal and developmental aspect, however, there are no visions which can deal with the environmental or political and regulatory aspect of the country.
Sustainable Development Goals of UN
In the year 2015, September, the United Nations General Assembly, adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development which consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the environmental aspect there are five goals that have been set by the UN. Firstly, to ensure that every individual gets success to water and proper sanitation facilities. Secondly, to ensure that every household is able to afford electricity by giving success to sustainable and modern form of energy for everyone (Griggs et al. 2013). Thirdly, taking proper measure to defend the continuous change in climate and the impacts that it has on the people. Fourthly, proper conservation of the marine resources, oceans and seas is mandatory and to maintain the effects of climate change on them. Fifthly, to conserve and properly use forests, wetlands, drylands, mountains and other forms of ecosystems by 2020 (Le Blanc 2015). In the social aspect there are four goals that have been set by the UN. Firstly, to empower every woman and girl and to promote gender equality. Secondly, to provide full employment and proper work for every individual. The goal is also to eradicate slavery, forced labor and human trafficking. Thirdly, reduce the inequalities between individuals and adopt certain policies which will empower the minority people. Fourthly, to ensure peace, harmony and justice globally, so that individuals can leave together without the presence of unwanted violence. In the developmental aspect there are eight goals that have been set by the UN (World Health Organization 2015). Firstly, UN have decided to eradicate poverty from everywhere in all its forms as this is the biggest challenge that us faced by humans all over the world. Secondly, the goal is to make sure that all forms of malnutrition and hunger is eradicated and each individual especially the children and the vulnerable ones get access to proper nutrition and food all around the year. Thirdly, one of the goals of the 2030 SDGs is to ensure proper health and well-being for all people and support the research and development of the medical field. Fourthly, all children should get proper and quality education and for all genders. The goal is to decrease the disparity between the education of the rich and the poor children. Fifthly, technological innovation and progress is a major reason for development and economic growth, hence, it has been set as a goal to invest in innovation and infrastructure Keesstra et al. 2016). Sixthly, it is important to make the cities safe and sustainable for people to grow and develop. Seventhly, the procedure of consumption and production of resources should be sustainable and done responsibly so that the resources do not deplete quickly and can be used in the development process. Eighthly, it is realized that the above mentioned goals in all the three aspects can only be successful if complete global cooperation and partnership is present. Hence another goal of making concrete global relationships is set in the 2030 SGDs. These abovementioned are the SDGs of 2030 which deals with the environmental, societal and developmental aspect, however, there are no visions which can deal with the political and regulatory aspect.
Comparison between KSA Vision 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals
It can be seen from both the above mentioned visions that both aim to promote sustainable development around the globe. However, there are many differences that can be derived from both the visions. The KSA visions only concentrates on the development of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and not the whole world (Fakeeh). The development goals are set in such ways so that any step taken would be only for the betterment of Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 are designed for the development of the whole world and to eradicate the issues in a timely manner which are faced by individuals all around the globe. The main step that had been taken by Saudi Arabia into the fulfilment of its vision is to align the Vision 2030 with the SDGS. The actions that have been taken by the national bodies which includes the government sector, the non-government sectors and the private sectors have also been taken into consideration for the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Agenda (Blaisi and Abdel-Magid). This alignment of the two visions have helped to understand the similarities that might be present between them in terms of social and economic aspects and can be fulfilled collectively. The progress in the KSA vision 2030 have helped in progress with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The similarities that might arise between the two vision is in several areas such as rising the standard of living of their people, improving the security of food and water in their surrounding where both these resources are scarce, increasing the ranks of the educational institutions and intensifying the health services in the country, investing heavily in renewable energy and developing an enhanced energy infrastructure, improvement of the business climate and investment in the latest modern technology for the development and upgradation of the country, constructing roadmaps for making a good infrastructure for railways, roads, ports, airports, sewage and water systems, electricity networks and such other areas, making plan to reach urban development which can be sustainable and protect the biodiversity of both land and water, improve the performance of the government institutions and provide quality services to the public and such other areas which are aligned with each other. The activities of the Sustainable Development Goals will go hand in hand with the KSA vision 2030 which have already progressed a lot ( Hutton and Varughese 2016). The main target would be to make certain plans which would help to fulfill both the goals together without hampering each other. The KSA vision 2030 focuses on the economic, developmental and societal aspect of the country whereas the Sustainable Development goals focuses on the environmental, developmental and societal development of the nations. The environmental and the economic goals of both the visions would function and progress separately as there are no similarities between the two. However, the developmental and societal goals have many similarities which could help in the collective progress of the goals through proper strategic formation and planning which would help to fast-track the goals (Ford 2015).
Progress on KSA Vision 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals
The KSA vision 2030 and the SGDs have made great progress in the years that have come both internationally and regionally keeping in mind the areas in which it had to make progress. Firstly, keeping the KSA vision in mind, as stated by the International Monetary Fund, it had been making good progress regarding its goals that have been set. International Monetary Fund says that the government’s commitment about the transformation of social and economic areas have been consistent and progressing and have been succeeding in driving away their traditional dependency on oil and creating more jobs in the private sector for the working age population which have been growing dynamically (Mousa 2017). Changes have been made in the conditions of business which includes changing the legal system, business licensing and regulations. The GDP of Saudi Arabia which was earlier 0.7 per cent in the year 2017, is expected to rise to 1.7 per cent in 2018. The economy is seen to be rising in the coming years to 1.9 per cent due to the increase in the oil output. The implementation of VAT and the strengthening if the tax administration have been done in the Saudi Arabia (Alharthi et al. 2017). There have also been recent reforms in the energy prices which should be continued as it helps in the progress of the vision. There have also been various reforms to strengthen the process of budget and the fiscal framework, the increasing of the fiscal transparency and the development of macro-fiscal analysis which are making great progress. On the other hand, the Sustainable Development Goals have not been making a dynamic progress as the development process have been quite slow. The annual checkup report on the SDGs was released by the UN which showed that the goals would not be achieved if there was no sense of urgency among the nations to make a progress (Malik 2014). The progress is slow and there have not been much changes which were made based on the ambitious goals of the SDGs. According to the report, the household who lived on less than $1.90 per person each day have decreased from 26.9 percent in the year 2000 to 9.2 per cent in the year 2017. The most common survey of the individuals living below the poverty line have been made in the year 2013 which showed that the number was 767 million which was almost 11 per cent of the whole population of the world. However, there have been an increase in the number of undernourished individuals from 777 million in the year 2015 to 815 million in the year 2016 (Dye, Reeder and Terry 2013). This makes goal 2 which was to end hunger and achieve food security and provide nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture a failure. Hence, it can be said that both the visions have been making progress however, the KSA vision have been making good progress by fulfilling its visions rapidly, whereas the Sustainable Development Goals have been making a very slow progress into achieving its vision both internationally and regionally.
There are many challenges and limitations that are being faced by both the KSA vision 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 during its progress. The KSA vision 2030 is built on the three pillars of a thriving economy, a vibrant society and an ambitious nation for its economic development (Hilal, Scott and Maadad 2015). The fulfilment of these goals have many challenges which will be faced by Saudi Arabia in the coming times. The challenges have several dimensions as the political leaders of the country have to understand and face the short term challenges which could be enormous such as the adjustments needed in the structure which are required to establish the socioeconomic paradigm of the country. The challenge is also to link the long term objectives so that the individuals can relate to it. The main challenge that have been revolving around the KSA vision 2030 have been the doubt about its launch and its ability to succeed according to the set goals. This uncertainty could be due to the uncertainty of the set goals and the ambitious nature of the goals and the less time frame of fifteen years which have been decided to achieve these ambitious goals (Alfawaz, Hilal and Alghannam 2014). Furthermore, there is scarcity of proper information or plans regarding the socio-political and macroeconomic transformation. Moreover, the slow responses that have been received from the government and the quasi-government bodies have led to the increase of the doubt surrounding the vision 2030. This economic reconstruction could be a major setback for many societies in the beginning as it changes their style of living that they have following for years which could prove to a great limitation for the vision. Therefore, it is necessary to find and form the right plans which can help the conversion of Vision 2030 to an actual implementation initiative. Similarly, there are many challenges that are being faced during the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The major challenge that is faced during the implementation process is finding a way in which the government, business, civil society, researchers and the non-governmental organizations can perform activities together. Administration is the main issue which makes the progress of getting things done very slowly in the society. There are frail protection in the global financial system, the global struggle of managing the climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. There are various other challenges as well that are faced by the Sustainable Development Goals (Schmidt, Gostin and Emanuel 2015). As mentioned by certain experts, it could be said that the set goals are unrealistic in their viewpoint such as the Goal 8 which promotes sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The unrealistic aspect of this goal is the 8.1 target which indicates a 7% per annum GDP growth in the least developed countries, which might not be possible due to the rising prices because of the scarcity of global resources and growing demand in the countries (Kolk 2016). The various targets set by the SGD are ambitious in nature which may create a setback for itself as not every country will be able to take on the challenge and work towards fulfilling the set goals.
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