Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman rounded up dozens of the country's business and political elites, including 11 of his fellow princes. Officially he is doing this as an anti-corruption measure however many regard this merely as a political coup to eliminate all of those who would possibly oppose him from becoming king. Many are unsure of what this could mean for the oil rich country. Many believe that this could cause a less oil reliant Saudi economy in the future as this prince has seemingly been moderate in his tone. Primarily as he has acted in this way before, sponsoring green energy projects, and allowing women to drive (which is considered progressive in Saudi Arabia). To what extent this will have on oil prices, especially as OPEC tries to reign in production, will be very interesting.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-arrests-crownprince-insight/a-house-divided-how-saudi-crown-prince-purged-royal-family-rivals-idUSKBN1DA23M
I suppose this is why Saudi Arabia's recent emphasis on support towards industries that are non-oil was accelerated. The new change does seem positive and is good that they are trying to get rid of their old economic systems.
ReplyDeleteSaudi Arabia will forever have a choke hold on the world as long as they control their oil supply. With a more progressive leader we can see that choke hold loosening as they try to adjust to rest of the world, because they have been able to be almost isolated from the rest of the world due to the power they hold with their oil. With this Prince we could maybe see some actual change and if they do develop green solutions then we could actually see a change in the industry instead of these minuscule changes that have occurred.
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