Saudi Arabia: Rush to Development: Profile of an Energy Economy and Investment

Summary

Saudi Arabia is one of the most controversial and least known of the Arab nations. A land of massive contrasts – between its densely populated cities and its vast expanses of desert; between the recent poverty of its villages and the massive wealth created by oil, which is drawing a labour force from most of the neighbouring countries; between the aggressive technocratic and industrial thrust forward and the strongly traditionalist Islamic basis of the ruling ideologies – it has progressed to world prominence in a matter of years after centuries of little or no change. The change is not so much a surge, or even a thrust, as a rush into the industrialized and wealthy world. This book analyzes the problems and achievements of Saudi development and provides the first detailed critique of the Third Development Plan.

First published in 1982.

Table of Contents

1. An Overview  2. The Economics of Oil  3. Agriculture and Development of Water Resources  4. Industrialization: Bright Hopes and Obstacles  5. Planning for Economic Development: the First Experience  6. Planning for Economic Development: the Second Experience  7. Planning for Economic Development: the Third Experience  8. Public Finance and Budgetary Policy  9. Money and Banking  10. International Trade  11. Saudi Arabian Foreign Aid  12. Business Trends and Potential