Crown Prince: We Have Made Major Progress Toward Vision 2030's Goals

He presented figures demonstrating major advances in program projects and outlined the future of the Saudi economy.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented the most significant achievements of Vision 2030 programs and projects over the preceding five years. He also discussed the Kingdom's regional and global relations and pledged to combat extremism and hold accountable extremists whose agendas target the Kingdom.

In an interview broadcast on state television and major Arab television networks, Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that oil had served Saudi Arabia enormously, but that the Kingdom existed as a state before oil. He explained that the income and growth generated by oil far exceeded the country's needs, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s, and that the surplus income and economic growth were hundreds of times greater than its aspirations. There was an impression that oil would meet all the Kingdom's needs. At the time, however, its population was fewer than three million, perhaps far fewer, and Riyadh had 150,000 residents.