Background

The Saudi government has unveiled its plan to move away from oil dependence over the next 15 years, entitled “Vision 2030.”

According to Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, one of the royals behind the plan, Vision 2030 will include asset sales (chief among them will be the state-owned Aramco, which will see an IPO as soon as next year), tax reform and budgetary reform, spending cuts, and a drive toward privatization.

Vision 2030 also entails the creation of a new sovereign wealth fund that will channel funds from state asset sales towards strategic overseas purchases, much like Norway, China, or Qatar’s sovereign investment funds. The early goal is to juice the fund with over $2 trillion dollars, which would more than double Norway’s $882 billion Government Pension Fund Global.