The crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman has been getting quite a lot of attention these days mainly due to his hard-hitting decisions that he has taken ever since he came to power.
For those who don’t know, Mohammed bin Salman was appointed as the crown prince to the throne on 21st June 2017 after Salman’s father King Salman decided to remove the former Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef from all of his positions on that very day.
Salman at 32 is extremely young for being the Crown Prince, First Deputy Prime Minister and the Defence Minister of Saudi Arabia.
In the few short months that he has been in power, Salman has taken a number of steps, some good and some questionable at this stage that have set him apart from the previous heir apparent.
Vision 2030
Perhaps the most impressive, and for Saudi Arabia, the much-needed step would be to move away from its dependency on oil, which is not something an entire country’s economy can run on for forever.
The Crown Price is planning to work towards developing revenues that are not oil based, digitization of the government, focus on sustainable development as well as privatization of the economy.
All these are pretty forward thinking ambitions that could lead Saudi Arabia to the modern age and make it a formidable country to recognize.
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Control Of Power
Recently, Prince bin Salman had detained several of Saudi Arabia’s notable figures that included politicians, businessmen, about 11 princes and various other wealthy tycoons and more.
The reason for the detainment was that these people were apparently accused of corruption and according to certain news sources was also allegedly to stop a coup from occurring.
The night of 4th November 2017 that has been termed as the ‘the night long knives’ will be remembered for a long time, since rarely has something like this ever happened in Saudi before.
This public humiliation of such powerful figures is not something that happens often and by many reporters and experts is being seen as a consolidation of power, so that only the Crown Prince has the maximum power.
Letting Women Drive
Apart from focusing on bettering the economic and government sectors of the country, Prince bin Salman is also focused on improving the condition of the youth and women of Saudi Arabia.
His historic law of lifting the ban on women to drive in the country in September this year has set him apart from his predecessors. As quoted by various media sources, the Crown Prince hopes that Saudi Arabia will be “returning to what we were before — a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world”.
Although several people of his country are celebrating the new and improved steps the Crown Prince is taking, he also has several decisions that need to be rethought such as the participation in the war of Yemen, the Qatar boycotting and more.
Image Credits: Google Images
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