FEW are the leaders who review what they have accomplished in their long-term projects, and evaluate and correct the faults they find in their work. Among these leaders is the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman who, in his televised interview with Saudi journalist Abdullah Al-Mudaifer, had elaborated what has been achieved and what is being worked on.

The interview contained many messages directed locally and internationally, charting a future that Saudi Arabia seeks steadily within the “Vision 2030” while preserving its legitimate and national constants without any procrastination.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia had pinpointed everything concerning the Gulf and Arab people, particularly his people. He highlighted the role of the kingdom in the region and the world, reassuring that the negative image entrenched in the minds of people due to the previous policies based on closure and fear of the future has today become a thing of the past.

What has been achieved in five years is much greater than what was expected. The fears over Saudi Arabia, which had been the obsession of every Saudi, Gulf and Arab individual, faded with this determination to shake off the dust of the past.

In general, the interview was the summary of what has been achieved since the start of the “Saudi 2030 project”. The Crown Prince announced that there is a second stage “Vision 2040,” which means that the awakening process is based on clear and scientific plans and continuous work.

This kind of march needs an official who is a believer, and is passionate about performing his duties and accomplishing his mission in whatever position or location he is, and all that is supposed to be achieved by maintaining and preserving social constants.

In fact, this does not mean the end of the day because there is still much to be done at various levels and to continue the work to achieve the goals of Saudi Arabia’s vision as hoped and desired.

Indeed, it is an integrated revolution based on the full realization that there is no renaissance without full awareness of a person in terms of his natural role in the national building process.

From here comes the confirmation of the head of the Saudi Economic Affairs Council who said, “Education today is not bad. The vision aims for three universities to be ranked among the best 200 universities worldwide.

The educational resources have become open, and the focus will be on plans to build skills that would enhance the strength of the Saudi identity and develop openness.

People with a weak identity are the ones who are worried about being open to the world... Saudis may be worried, but they are not afraid.”

Through this information, we understand the meaning of diversification of sources of income. It is no longer a rhetoric, but rather a behavior entrenched in the minds of every official. This is because the interest of the leadership and the people is to detach from dependence on oil. The growth of the Saudi nation and citizen satisfaction is an essential task for the country’s leaders.

Based on this, we say – What has been achieved in the past few years is a revolution of the awareness and salvation that Saudi Arabia has waited for a long time until it got the leadership that could liberate it from the rigid molds previously set by the frameworks of corruption, and made it rampant for decades in state institutions.

Therefore, the beginning happened by dismantling those molds and practices of the corrupt hands, either by princes or ordinary citizens, through a historic decision that stopped the wastage of trillions of riyals since 1980, and returned more than $100 billion to the State Treasury.

Given that the confidence in national capabilities is very high, Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not turn to Western media to address the world. He instead chose the local media, to be the platform from which it appears, setting the Saudi constants within which it is possible to walk in good neighborly relations, be it with Iran, which “at the end of the day, Iran is a neighboring country, but our problem with it is its negative behavior and its support for militias on our borders.”

There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia is proceeding through an important stage of modernization, which is if it links its economy with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, through an integrated industrial structure, then the gross national product of these countries will have a global influence, but rather a lever for an Arab world, which is desperately needed to get out of the tunnel of stalemate.

Based on this fact, the first initiative came through the Green Middle East Project, launched by the Saudi Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman to plant 50 billion trees, of which ten billion are in the kingdom alone, which will be a solid foundation for a good environment and a source of self-sufficiency in food.

This young and ambitious stature presented an integrated work program, with a simple speech that reaches all people, without being overly concerned. The man of his quality feels the pulse of his people and his family in Saudi Arabia and the region, and he answered all the questions which might have been looming in the atmosphere of many.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times