Achieving Socio-Economic Development in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is ambitious to develop mega cities until year 2030. It is focusing on infrastructure development with heavy investment of $766 billion dollars. It is very important question that whether this economic development will aid in social development and people prosperity in Saudi Arabia. Economic development is not possible without achievement of social development. Government should make human a centre in a development process. There is need to benefit the human in every plan and strategy.

It would be very important to find the answers of these questions while making the long term economic policy.

• How living standard of people will be maintained?
• How per capita income of individuals will be increased?
• How literacy rate will be increased in future when Saudi Arabia is heading towards Non Oil sectors development?
• How gender equality will be ensured and maintained?
• How infant mortality rate will be reduced?
• How life expectancy will be increased when it is making changes in infrastructure and introducing advanced technology?
• Where Saudi Arabia will be standing in Human development Index?
• How security and safety will be ensured for citizens?
• How development process will be giving benefit to both poor and rich class of the country?
• How employment rate will be increased?
• How social and legal rights will be transferred to common public of Saudi Arabia?
• How justice will be ensured on without any distinction?
• Why social development is important for the country?

Living Standard

Living standard is very important factor in economic development as well as social development. There is need to focus on living standard of people while making plans of high standard cities. There should be a clear similarity between living standards of citizens and mega cities structure. Human empowerment is only possible if living standard is growing with the growth in infrastructure. Previously living standard of residents is quite good due to major dependence of economy on oil. But due to risk of deficiency in oil reserves in future, it will be a difficult challenge to maintain living standard of people at acceptable. There is risk that development process may result in unequal distribution of wealth. Rich will be more rich and poor will get more poor. It is important to include social development in economic policies in such a way that at least it achieves minimum living standard criteria for maximum people of Saudi Arabia.

Per Capita GDP

Per Capita GDP data since 2013

It is expected that GDP per capita will be 1.5% higher in 2018 than 2017. Saudi Arabia is not ranked in top ten countries list with highest per capita GDP. Investment would be required in physical and human capital to increase GDP. There is also need to increase labor productivity through increasing the skills of labor. These efforts will result in increase Per Capita GDP. It is expected that Per Capita GDP will increase upto $ 23275.61 until 2022. Government should take it seriously because it seems that there are efforts required to boost it up. Government is also imposing taxes and fines unnecessarily, reducing tax  will also help to aid in growth in per capita income.

Educational Development

Education is path towards social development. People become self sufficient when they get proper education. It also helps them to get awareness, knowledge about their rights and legal rights. Literacy rate in Saudi Arabia is 94.7 % currently and it is planning to eradicate the illiteracy by 2024. This literacy rate is based on persons who can read and write only. There is need to build universities where advanced educational programs can be conducted. Government is also trying to educate its youth. But it is very important to focus on advanced education programs. Because nations achieve their economic development when people are educated. Human capital investment is best investment. Like Germany was stable during the time economic crunch because It has invested much more in research and development instead of investment in infrastructure. Whereas Spain had very difficult time during economic crunch because of inefficient policies.

Gender Equality

Population of Saudi Arabia as of July 3, 2018 is 33,552,012. Total percentage of female population is 43.13% out of total population. It means that females are approximately near to half of total population. Social development of women is as important as it is for men. There is need to provide equal rights to both genders in term of education, jobs, rights and opportunities. If females would be socially developed community. They can play very important role in development of society. Right now Saudi government is allowing women in different fields like vehicle driving. It is good step towards gender equality. It also plays very important role in economic development. Because involving women in economic activities will result in utilization of maximum resources. Government should play its vital role in encouraging women to participate in economic activities. It should start motivational programs to achieve women empowerment as well.

Infant Mortality

Deaths in birth rates shows quality of hospital and medical facilities in hospitals. If it is high it means infants are not getting proper medical treatment. It becomes weak point in social development. The government has started campaigns to spread awareness of diseases for childbearing women, and important nutrients for infants. In 1960, there were 292 deaths per 1,000 live births in Saudi Arabia. By 2015, that number fell to 13 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2018, it is 12.77 death per 1000 live births. Government has made lot of efforts in medical awareness to parents about nutrients and other methods to reduced the infant mortality rate. It should make further efforts to reduced it to 4 or more less by investment in medical field.

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy shows how many years people will have good health in country. Maximum life expectancy means there is very good health standards in country. Flourishing nation depends on the health of its people. Government has taken steps to face the challenges of development by committing to build medical infrastructure that is unmatched in the Middle East. Due to efforts in healthcare, the life expectancy of the Saudi people has dramatically increased from 52.7 years in 1970 to 75.05 years in 2015. Now it is around 75.5 years. It was ranked at 80th position in all over the world on high life expectancy basis. There is need to make more efforts in this field to get more better ranking. There is need to invest in research and development or to make amendments in life expectancy program to ensure health and fitness.

Human development index

Saudi Arabia is ranked at No 9 in human development in Asia and it is ranked at no. 38 in all over the world. Although Human development of Saudi Arabia is good but there are efforts needed to maintain or increase the ranking by focusing on factors which human development index which are life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators. There is need to cope with vision 2030 and human development indicators as well.

Safety and security

Security is basic need of human. It brings satisfaction and play vital role in social development. Safety and security situation is not bad in Saudi Arabia due to strict Shria law and punishment on different crimes. There is always security in sensitive place in Saudi Arabia. Which means that people can perform their activities freely. But due to clash Iran, risk of terrorism has been increased. Government should take serious steps to increase quality of intelligence services and security in country. But it is also need that government should play important role to eradicate the Shia Sunni conflict. It will help to improve the security situation in the country. It will improve the level of social development and also investors will come to Saudi Arabia to increase economic activities.

Equal Distribution of wealth and jobs

Right now government is very excited to get to the final level of vision 2030. But there is risk that people will not have equal chances and opportunities. Education and employment is equal right of all individuals. Government should make efforts to ensure that all class of people are growing along with economic developing of country. It should start subsidies for those people who wants to grow crops and fruits to encourage agriculture. As IT sector is growing rapidly, there is so much work being done on artificial intelligence. Government should encourage to start businesses in field of artificial intelligence and big data. After development of mega cities, highly skilled people will be needed for jobs. Training should be done of people under senior staff to make them eligible for jobs. There is need to make knowledge and skills development program in such a way that maximum people will get benefit from it. Equal opportunities will increase the level of awareness among people and objective of social development will be met. Right now employment rate is 87.2% which is quite good. But there is risk that employment rate will be decreased as there will be high skilled jobs will be offered and population is also growing. So there is need to adjust economic policies to employment needs in future.

Entertainment and Sports facilities

Investment in Entertainment and sports facilities opens the way to lot of economic and social activities. Saudi Arabian government has already started to plan of development of entertainment facilities in country and included in the vision 2030. Sports play very important role in physical fitness of youth and representation of sportsmen in different events work as ambassador of country. Further entertainment like gaming zones, cinemas, parks, museum, zoo and virtual games provides relaxation and knowledge of different advancements in technology and cultural changes to youth. It should invest in these facilities to involve youth and new generation in economic and social plans in the future.

Human rights and justice

Many economist and researchers said that social and legal rights to people is ultimate objective of every country to take step towards developed economy. Without awareness of social and legal rights, no society can grow in real terms. Justice system is very reliable due to strict Shria Law in Saudi Arabia. Still there is need to ensure that justice is being provided to all citizens on equality basis and timely justice is being given. Further government should encourage the role of social institutions in society. Social institutions should play their role in development of society. There is need to give education to people of their social and legal rights and how they can exercise it. Government institutions should take some initiatives to make independent bodies which play its role to provide justice and ensure human rights without any political interference.

Why social development is important?

Economic development with only economic benefit is very old concept and it is not very effective. If Saudi Arabia wants to achieve sustainability in growth, it needs to give attention towards social development. It should follow the social and human infrastructure of European countries which is still in place and highly developed. There are also great examples of social development in China and Russia. Government should do research on these models to make important decisions. The residual growth of Saudi Arabia should be explained largely by improvement in the quality of the labor force. This can be done by the development of human resources. Best results in economy can only be achieved through improved education of labor and motivated entrepreneurship. Human resource development is very important factor in economy which has been seen in past economic development of different countries. So country like Saudi Arabia should concentrate more on human development to get its results. It will be able to have reliable and skilled labor, good economic condition and educated community if they avoid heavy investment in capital resources and divert some investment towards social development.

References

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Can-Saudi-Arabia-Afford-Its-Megaprojects.html

"Saudi Arabia GDP per capita (USD) - FocusEconomics." https://www.focus-economics.com/country-indicator/saudi-arabia/gdp-per-capita-USD. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

"List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita - Wikipedia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268069/gross-domestic-product-per-capita-of-saudi-arabia/. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

"List of countries by literacy rate - Wikipedia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

"Saudi Arabia Population (2018) - Worldometers." https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/saudi-arabia-population/. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

"Saudi Arabia - World Population Review." https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/saudi-arabia-population/. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

"SAUDI ARABIA POLITICAL, ECONOMIC & SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT." 1 May. 2017, https://www.saudiembassy.net/sites/default/files/WhitePaper_Development_May2017.pdf. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

"Geoba.se: Gazetteer - Saudi Arabia - 2018 - Statistics and Rankings." https://www.geoba.se/country.php?cc=SA. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

Saudi Arabia Life expectancy at birth - Demographics - IndexMundi." https://www.indexmundi.com/saudi_arabia/life_expectancy_at_birth.html. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

"List of countries by Human Development Index - Wikipedia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.

"List of countries by employment rate - Wikipedia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_employment_rate. Accessed 4 Jul. 2018.