The King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) co-hosted a workshop entitled “Vision 2030: Opportunities and Challenges” in Brussels on 1 December 2017.

Following the opening remark given by Mr Julien Barnes-Dacey, Senior Policy Fellow of the ECFR, three speakers from the KFCRIS presented on the key opportunities and challenges facing the Saudi economy and the economic transformation initiatives under Vision 2030.

The first speaker, Mr Faris Al-Sulayman, Research Fellow (Political Economy Unit), accounted the two major challenges facing the Kingdom – fiscal adjustment in the time of low oil prices and youth unemployment problem – and explored the changes in the country’s state-business relations.

The second speaker, Dr Sadad Al-Husseini, Senior Adviser to the KFCRIS, explained Saudi Arabia’s OPEC strategy, power demand, domestic oil and gas development, and nuclear power plans. He also provided scenarios of the US shale oil drilling based on different levels of oil price recovery.

The third speaker, Dr Makio Yamada, Research Fellow (Head, Political Economy Unit), analyzed the Kingdom’s education reform initiatives. He also called for policies to facilitate the education-to-employment transition of young Saudi citizens in order to accelerate the process of Saudisation.

The workshop was attended by around 20 guests, many of whom were diplomats and from the European Union’s policy-making circle. The speakers and guests engaged in lively discussions.