Geography CAT 2

Ethan Tran

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Z

Legend
=Saudi Arabia

Source: Google Maps (2019), Saudi Arabia, viewed 18 May 2023. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Saudi+Arabia/@24.1407898,39.7831812,6z/
data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x15e7b33fe7952a41:0x5960504bc21ab69b!8m2!3d23.885942!4d45.079162!16zL20vMDF6MjE1?entry=ttu

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Question 1
(b) Saudi Arabia is in the western part of Asia, and when compared to Australia which is in the
southern part of Oceania. Saudi Arabia is in the northern hemisphere, whereas Australia is in the
southern hemisphere. Saudi Arabia is surrounded by other countries such as United Arab Emirates
(UAE), Oman and Yemen to the south, and Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait to the north. Australia isn’t
directly close to other countries, instead it is spread apart from others like islands, with Indonesia
and Papua New Guinea to the North and New Zealand to the East. Saudi Arabia is semi landlocked,
with the north and the south being cut off by other countries. However, the east and the west still
have access to water. Australia is not landlocked; it is surrounded by water.

Question 2
Saudi Arabia
GDP Per Capita Saudi Arabia has a GDP per
capita of 23,185.87 USD as of
2021. Saudi Arabia’s GDP
comes from many things, and
some of it comes from its
petroleum. Being the country
with the fourth largest
measured natural gas reserves,
with its second largest proven
petroleum reserves, Saudi
Arabia is one of the primary
exporters of petroleum,
accounting for almost 15% of
global output. This part of the
service sector accounts for a
large 24.1% of Saudi Arabia’s
GDP, just under a quarter of it.
According to the Institute of
International Finance Saudi
Arabia makes almost 40 billion
a year from their oil exports
alone. The oil exports also
account for almost 87% of the
government revenue, showing
how reliant Saudi Arabia is on
their petroleum supply.
Majority of Saudi Arabia’s GDP
comes from its private sector.
Their private sector amounts
to 50.5% of the total GDP,
because of the Saudi Arabia
Vision 2030. This started in
2016 and was used to help
Australia
Australia has a GDP per capita
of 65,005.795 USD as of June
2022. Australia is quite a
developed country, with
multiple factors that help
contribute to its large GDP.
Australia is a world class
provider of a range of services,
it has plenty of education
options, has a level of tourism
and if not most importantly a
mining and energy related
service. This has meant the
service sector of Australia
contributes more than 60% of
the total GDP. The main
reasons because of this are
because of Australia’s mining
industry. Things like coal and
uranium mines help to greatly
increase the GDP of Australia,
with the mining sector
contributing 10% of the GDP
alone. This is more than the
8% the agriculture sector
contributes to the GDP. Within
the mining sector, things like
uranium help to increase the
GDP through uranium exports,
which came in at around 16%
of Australia’s exports in 2019-
2020. Australia and its health
and education also help to

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 foster the private sector and
create more programs and
funds that could help drive the
economy to allow it to become
more innovative and open to
the future, as their oil supply
was finite. Part of the final goal
is to allow the private sector to
grow from 40% to 65% of
contribution towards the GDP.
Position on DTM Saudi Arabia is in the 3rd stage
of the DTM. This is because of
its slightly decreasing birth rate
and death rate, not being as
low as countries like Australia.
Saudi Arabia currently has a
death rate of 3.6 per 1000
people, which is a considerable
decrease from the 1950’s
when it was at around 24
deaths per 1000. Saudi Arabia
has a birth rate of 2.46 per
women, which has been
decreasing since the late
1970’s, where in which it was
peaking at around 7 births per
women. Because of its slightly
decreasing birth and death
rate, Saudi Arabia cannot be
defined anywhere further than
stage 3, as the country is not at
the point where it is
experiencing a natural
decrease, which is something
that only happens around the
stage 4 and 5 marks of the
DTM.
HDI Rank Saudi Arabia is ranked 35th
place with 0.875 points as of
2022. Saudi Arabia is placed
here because of its decently
high life expectancy of 76.24
years, which is increasing each
year at an averaged 0.21%.
Saudi Arabia has a GNI per
capita of around 21,540 PPP
dollars, which is above
average, and this is mainly
because of its large exporting
business with its high supply of
contribute to the GDP, making
up almost 13%, even more
than the mining industry. This
can be seen in 2022 where
education helped to add 29
billion to the GDP with
international students
contributing 25 billion of this
and students studying online
adding on 3.5 billion.
Australia’s position on the
DTM is around the stage 4
mark. This is because of its
increasing low birth rate and
death rate. Australia’s current
birth rate is around 1.5 births
per women, and its death rate
is at around 5.1 deaths per
1000 as of 2022, which is
declining each year. Australia
may soon be heading into the
5th stage of the DTM as its
population is beginning to
become an aging one, with
slight a growing middle band
(where in which there is a
significant larger amount of
population in the working
ages), and a shrinking narrow
base, which means that
Australia may soon have birth
rates lower than the
replacement rate. If this
happens, Australia will be
categorised as a country in
Stage 5 of the DTM.
Australia is ranked in 5th place
with 0.951 points as of 2022.
Australia is ranked so high
because of its high life
expectancy, at around 83.2
years, due to free healthcare
and increased and more
precise medical assistance. It
also has a high GNI per capita
of 55,660 PPP dollars, with a
total GNI of over 1 trillion
because of its high GDP and
large exporting section.
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 petroleum, being one of the
largest global exporters of it.
Saudi Arabia also has an high
literacy rate of 97.59%, with its
education contributing around
7.81% of its GDP, as of 2020.
Question 3 and 4
Australia has a literacy rate of
99%, extremely close to 100%,
proving how developed the
country is to be at a high place
in the HDI ranks. All this show
how Australia’s HDI rank is
where it is now.
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Change In Age Structure (1993-2023)

With a retirement
age of 60, 3.8% of the
population, with
2.2% of this being
34.3% of the population are males aged
males and 1.6% being
between 15 and 60, and 21.6% of the
females, live above
population are females aged between 15
the retirement age.
and 60. These two percentages combined
Since 40.1% of the
leads to Saudi Arabia having around
population is under
55.9% of the population in the 15 to 60
15 there is a total
area, or the “independent” population
43.9% of the
section.
population that are in
the “dependent”
Using the
percentage population.
of the
population Since 19.5% of the
population being
in the
independen under 15 females,
and 20.6% of the
t and
dependent population being
areas we under 15 males,
can there is a combined
determine total 40.1% of the
that the population that live
dependency under 15.
ratio would
3.8% (no difference) of the
37.7% (increase of 3.4%) of the
population, with 2% (decrease of
population are males aged between 15
0.2%) of this being males and
and 60, and 23.7% (increase of 2.1%) of
1.8% (increase of 0.2%) being
the population are females aged
females, live above the
between 15 and 60. These two
retirement age. Since 37% of the
percentages combined leads to Saudi
population is under 15 there is a
Arabia having around 61.4% (increase
total 40.8% (decrease of 3.1%) of
of 5.5%) of the population in the 15 to
the population that are in the
60 area, or the “independent”
“dependent” population.
population section.
Since 19.4% (decrease of 0.1%) of
the population being under 15
females, and 17.6% (decrease of
3%) of the population being
under 15 males, there is a
combined total 37% (decrease of
3.1%) of the population that live
under 15.
Using the
percentage of the
population in the
independent and
dependent areas
we can determine
that the
dependency ratio
would be 60.26%
(decrease of
18.27%).

The males in the independent

population are beginning to expand Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to
Source: Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100 2013, (more information in question 4).
2100 2013, PopulationPyramid.net, viewed 22 May
PopulationPyramid.net, viewed 22 May 2023,
2023, https://www.populationpyramid.net/saudi-
https://www.populationpyramid.net/saudi-arabia/1993/
arabia/2003/ 6
 3.7% (increase of 0.1%) of the
40.8% (increase of 3.1%) of the population, with 2% (no
population are males aged between 15 difference) of this being males
and 60, and 27.5% (increase of 3.8%) of and 1.7% (decrease of 0.1%)
the population are females aged being females, live above the
between 15 and 60. These two retirement age. Since 27.2% of
percentages combined leads to Sri the population is under 15 there
Lanka having around 68.3% (increase of is a total 30.9% (decrease of
6.9%) of the population in the 15 to 60 10.9%) of the population that are
area, or the “independent” population in the “dependent” population.
section.
Since 13.7% (decrease of 5.7%) of
the population being under 15
females, and 13.5% (decrease of
2.1%) of the population being
under 15 males, there is a
combined total 27.2% (decrease
of 8.8%) of the population that
live under 15.
Using the percentage of
the population in the
independent and
dependent areas we
can determine that the
dependency ratio would
be 45.21% (decrease of
15.05%).
The male part of the
independent population Source: Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100 2013,
continues to grow,
PopulationPyramid.net, viewed 22 May 2023,
lowing the dependency
ratio but damaging the https://www.populationpyramid.net/saudi-arabia/2013/
gender ratio.
40.9% (increase of 0.1%) of the
population are males aged between 15
and 60, and 27.7% (increase of 0.2%) of
the population are females aged
between 15 and 60. These two
percentages combined leads to Sri
Lanka having around 68.6% (increase of
0.3%) of the population in the 15 to 60
area, or the “independent” population
section.
The dependency
ratio slightly
increases due to
the increased
number of
retirees.
Source: Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to
2100 2013, PopulationPyramid.net, viewed 22 May 2023,
https://www.populationpyramid.net/saudi-arabia/2023/
5.8% (increase of 2.1%) of the
population, with 3.5% (increase
of 1.5%) of this being males and
2.3% (increase of 0.6%) being
females, live above the
retirement age. Since 25.8% of
the population is under 15 there
is a total 31.6% (increase of 0.7%)
of the population that are in the
“dependent” population.
Since 12.6% (increase of 1%) of
the population being under 15
females, and 13.2% (decrease of
0.3%) of the population being
under 15 males, there is a
combined total 25.8% (decrease
of 1.4%) of the population that
live under 15.
Using the percentage of
the population in the
independent and
dependent areas we
can determine that the
dependency ratio would
be 46.06% (increase of
0.85%).
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Analysis of Saudi Arabia’s Population Pyramids
From the sources above, we can see that the population of Saudi Arabia looks like a typical youthful
population pyramid in the 1990s. However, there is a slight gender imbalance where in which there
are more males to females, with around 34% of the population being independent males to around
21% of the population being independent females. The reason why there are such differences in the
gender percentage is because of the migrant workers moving in to find jobs, otherwise known as
labour migrants. This usually happens with more men than women, which explains why there is a
growth in males in the working ages compared to the females.

In the 2003 graph we can see that here are much more males than females in the independent part
of the population. There is an increase of 3.4% in the independent male’s part of the population, and
only a 2.1% increase for the females. With continuous migrant workers coming in, this has led for the
inevitable fact that Saudi Arabia will become a skewed population. There are decreases of births
currently, with the dependent population of people under 15 decreasing by 3%. With the less births,
and increased migrant workers, Saudi Arabia’s dependency ratio skyrockets down, decreasing by
almost 20%, 18.27% to be exact.

In the 2013 graph there are even more males in the independent population section, with the
percentage increasing from 23.7% to 27.5%, which helps bring the total percentage of the
independent by around 4%. There is a continuous decrease of those in the dependent population
below 15 years of age, which is because of the lowering birth rate as Saudi Arabia begins shifting
through stage 3 of the DTM. The dependent population decreases by almost 10%, which leads for
the dependency ratio to keep going down, this time by 15%.

In the 2023 graph we can see that there isn’t much growth with increasing migrant workers, but from
the percentages we can tell it is influencing the retirees, with the dependent population aged 60 and
above increasing in 2-3%, most likely because of the migrant workers who have stayed in Saudi
Arabia instead of leaving to head back to their country. Currently, migrant workers make up roughly
40% of Saudi Arabia’s population, which is such a large amount that it has skewed Saudi Arabia’s
population because of the gender imbalance.

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 Saudi Arabia’s Crude Birth Rate (1985-2015) Saudi Arabia’s birth rate
continues to fall,
suggesting that it is
progressing further in the
DTM.

Saudi Arabia’s birth rate

begins to gradually
decrease each year from
40.5 in 1985 to 24.8 in
2002, averaging around a
decrease of 0.92 each year.

Decrease in birth rate

begins to slow down, with
a drop from 23.8 in 2003
to 19.7 in 2015, averaging
only a decrease of 0.34
each year.

Source: Gapminder Tools 2023, Gapminder.org, viewed 23 May 2023,

https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$ui$chart$opacitySelectDim:0;;&model$markers$bubble$encoding$y$data$concept=crude_birth_rate_births_per_1000_po
pulation&space@=country&=time;&source=sg;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;&x$data$concept=time&space@=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoome
d:null&type:null;;&frame$speed:172&value=2015&extrapolate:0;&trail$data$filter$markers$sau=2015;;;;;;;;&chart-type=bubbles&url=v1 9
 z
Saudi Arabia’s Crude Death Rate (1985-2015)

Saudi Arabia’s death rate is at a From 2001 to 2011, the
constant decline, with 6.21 death rate continues to
deaths per 1000 people in 1985 decline, but begins to
to 3.48 in 2000, averaging a thin out, dropping from
decline of 0.18 per year. 3.32 to only 2.41,
averaging a drop of
0.09 a year.
From 2012 to 2015, the
death rate stops
decreasing and begins to
rise very slowly, growing
from 2.44 to 2.54.

Source: Gapminder Tools 2023, Gapminder.org, viewed 23 May 2023,

https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$ui$chart$opacitySelectDim:0;;&model$markers$bubble$encoding$y$data$concept=crude_death_rate_deaths_per_1000_population&space@=country&=time;&source=sg;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:n

ull&type:null;;&x$data$concept=time&space@=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;&frame$speed:172&value=2015&extrapolate:0;&trail$data$filter$markers$sau=2015;;;;;;;;&chart-type=bubbles&url=v1
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Saudi Arabia’s Natural Increase (1991-2021)
Natural Increase begins to
decrease, implying that Saudi
Arabia is shifting further
through the DTM (predicted).

Natural Increase
begins to
increase as birth
rate goes up.

As death rate
increase Natural
Increase decreases.

The gap in between when birth

rate is higher than death rate is
the natural increase, when
death rate is higher than birth
rate is natural decrease.

Source: theglobalgraph.com 2019, Saudi Arabia Population, The Global Graph, theglobalgraph.com, viewed 27 May 2023,
https://worldpopulation.theglobalgraph.com/p/saudi-arabia-population.html
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Analysis of Saudi Arabia’s Crude Death and Birth Rate
and Natural Increase
In both the birth rate and death rate graph, we can see that the number per 1000 people is usually
decreasing at a constant pace over the years. In the birth rate graph, there is a decrease each year of
around 0.92 people in terms of the birth rate, which is due to the rise in literacy, women
empowerment, and more family planning plus economical advancements. This has led for Saudi
Arabia’s birth rate to decrease all the way from 40.5 in 1985 to 19.7 in the span of 30 years. The
lowering birth rate helps to suggest that Saudi Arabia is currently in a developing stage, with a
relatively low birth rate, but not as low compared to Stage 4 countries of the DTM like Australia,
which has a birth rate of around 12.

Saudi Arabia’s death rate from 1985 consistently drops, decreasing by around 0.18 people per 1000
each year, which allows it to steadily drop all the way from 6.21 to 2.41 (the lowest it has seen). The
reason why the death rate is slowly falling is because of the introduction of better healthcare, which
leads to less deaths and a higher life expectancy. It does begin to thin and slow down from 2001 to
2011, where the decrease goes from 0.18 people to a mere 0.09 people per 1000. This is because the
death rate is beginning to increase, with multiple reasons to why it does increase. From 2012 to
2015, Saudi Arabia’s death rate increases from 2.44 to 2.54, and does continue to increase up until
our current day. This is because of the rise of road injuries and disabilities, which has increased by
almost 30% since 2009. Another reason why is because the execution rate of Saudi Arabia began to
excel and increase by 82%, which has led the death rate to gradually increase.

Saudi Arabia’s Natural Increase begins to grow rapidly from 1960 to 2015, as the birth rate
skyrockets, and the death rate only slowly grows. Around 2015 onwards, the predicted death rate
begins to increase, which lowers the natural increase. This would because of the pandemic and
COVID, increasing the death rate rapidly. It is also predicted that as the birth rate decreases and
Saudi Arabia progresses into the DTM, the death rate will also increase, and the country will fall in
the natural decrease.

Even with the relatively low birth rate and death rate, because of the slightly growing increase in
deaths, Saudi Arabia is still in Stage 3 of the DTM, where the death rate is slightly lower, but not as
low to be considered a Stage 4 country, and with a birth rate that also isn’t low enough that natural
decreasing begins to happen. If Saudi Arabia attains a lower death rate, then it can progress into
stage 4 of the DTM.

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Saudi Arabia Ethnic Composition

There is a combined total of

29.93% of the population
which aren’t Arabians, majority
of which are labour migraters.

Majority of Saudi
Arabia’s population
are Arabians, which
make up more that
70% of the
population.

Source: 2023, Google.com, viewed 1 June 2023, https://sites.google.com/a/richland2.org/houston---saudi-arabia/culture?tmpl=%2Fsystem 13

%2Fapp%2Ftemplates%2Fprint%2F&showPrintDialog=1
Saudi Arabia Migration as a Percentage of the Population (1990 to 2015)

Migrants account for 31% The migrant percentage

of the whole population. begins to grow again,
increasing from 26% to 32%,
growing by 7%, effectively
making migration percentage
increase form 1990.
Migrant percentage begins
to decrease, reaching a
low of 25% of the
population, decreasing by
6%.

Source: Saudi Arabia Migrant population - data, chart | TheGlobalEconomy.com 2015, TheGlobalEconomy.com, viewed 29 May
2023, https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Saudi-Arabia/migrant_population/

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Saudi Arabia’s Refugee Population in 1000’s (2014-2021) Refugee population begins to
stay consistent, only growing
by 18 from 2019 to 2021,
Refugee population
staying the 300s.
decreases from 559 in
2014
Source: Saudi Arabia Refugee to 112 in-2015,
population Refugee population 2021, TheGlobalEconomy.com,
data, chart | TheGlobalEconomy.com
decreasing by 447. increases from 136 in
viewed 29 May 2023, https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Saudi-Arabia/refugee_population/
2016 to 263 in 2018,
‌ increasing by 127 in the
span of 3 years.

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Annotation of Saudi Arabia’s Ethnic Composition,
Migrant Population and Refugee Population
As we can see in the ethnic composition pie chart, majority of Saudi Arabia’s population is Arabian,
with around 30% being of another ethnicity. When comparing this with the migration graph, we can
deduce that majority of the population that are another ethnicity are migrants, which make up
around 30% of the population.

In the migration graph we can see that there is a drop in migrants at around the 1995 to 2005 mark,
and this is because migrants began to leave because they couldn’t sustain a proper lifestyle in Saudi
Arabia. But as the country developed, economically and such, the population of migrants began to
grow again, rising from 25% back up to around 32% of the population. Many people migrate to Saudi
Arabia as labour migraters in the need of jobs, with over 75% of the private sector (talked about in
question 2) workforce being foreign workers. As seen in the population pyramid, because most of the
labour migraters are males, it has skewed the population to the point where there is a gender ratio
of 137 males to every 100 females. And the migrants continue to come into Saudi Arabia, because of
its now low cost of living.

In the refugee population we can see that there is a massive drop from 2014 to 2015, going from 559
to 112. This reason the number is so high to begin with is because of the Syria Civil War, which
brought in many refugees into the country of Saudi Arabia. This sudden drop is because Saudi Arabia
was able to give residency to over 100 thousand refugees. More refugees begin to come to Saudi
Arabia because of its safer, low crime rate cities as well as its low cost of living (mentioned above)
which leads to a slight increase in the coming years after 2015. Saudi Arabia, combined with its
refugees and migrants, currently holds the 2nd greatest number of migrants within its borders, with
over 10 million people. This number of migrants helps to show why there is such a large percentage
of the population that aren’t Arabian, and it also explains certain graphs such as the migration one.

Question 5
These characteristics such as ethnic composition, migration percentage and the gender ratio are all
affected by the topic of Saudi Arabia migrant workers. The first problem that is happening because
of migrant workers is the distribution of the ethnic composition. Currently, migrants make up around
30% of Saudi Arabia’s whole population, and 30% of the ethnic composition are ethnicities other
than Arabian. This problem means that the migrants are reducing the population of the Arabians, as
more migrants begin to move to Saudi Arabia, the less of a percentage Arabians make up in the
population. If migrants then reproduce within the borders, it further decreases the total population
of Arabians, effectively changing the ethnic composition of Saudi Arabia. This can prove to be a
problem if the migrant percentage continues, as it will eventually and gradually reduce the
percentage of Arabians, lowering their overall population. This can be seen with other countries like
the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country which has so many migrants, such as migrant workers,
that the population of the country’s nationality is only around 10%. If the number of migrant workers
that come into Saudi Arabia keeps up, it could soon grow to be a problem to the country in the
future, in terms of the ethnic diversity and the total percentage of the main country’s nationality,
Arabian.

Another problem that is caused and is affecting migrant workers is the migrant percentage. This is a
simple one, whereas more migrants come in, the higher the migrant percentage grows. This

16
percentages accounts for the part of the population that are made up of migrants. In this case, Saudi
Arabia’s migrants make up 38% of the whole population. This can become a problem as the surge in
labour migraters looking for work uses up more natural resources, amenities, and services, on top of
the normal population, which slightly affects inflation but ultimately creates more competition for
jobs and housing, between those who live in the country and those who migrant into it. With a
bigger population and more people to accommodate, this can then lead to general issues faced
around the world such as more pollution from traffic congestion, more waste produced and a greater
effect on the environment from the greater usage and more job opportunities to help produce and
export from oil rigs.

The third problem that is mainly caused by the migrant workers and then are affected by it is the
gender ratio of Saudi Arabia. Because majority of migrant workers coming into the country for work
are males, not females, it leads to a more skewed gender ratio. This means that there are more
males to females, and this is quite evident in the population pyramids in question 3. Currently, the
gender ratio in Saudi Arabia is 137.13 males to 100 females, compared to a country like Australia,
where the gender ratio is 99.2 males to every 100 females. This means that there will be many men
who cannot marry, which can lead to lower self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. This imbalance in
gender ratio also ultimately affects the growth of each gender, with the constant amount of labour
migrants coming in and the reduction in reproduction, there will be a faster growth in the male part
of the population over the female part of the population. This gender imbalance then further
reduces the birth rate, as there will be less females to men. As of 2022, the stats show that Saudi
Arabia males make up 58% of the population, with the females only making up 42%, meaning there
is a difference of 16% between the two genders. If this problem keeps up, the Saudi Arabia
population could begin to decrease from the lower reproduction rate as well as nearly permanently
skew the population, creating it imbalanced until the government puts a policy in place.

These three problems are a direct cause from the Saudi Arabia migrant workers or are characteristics
that are affected by the number of migrants in the country. If these problems go unnoticed, by the
government, there could be serious issues the country faces, such as a completely imbalanced
population, as mentioned above.

Question 6
Saudi Arabia faces quite a few issues, as mentioned in question 5, and the government has
responded to these problems by putting things in place.

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 was first formed in 2016 and was created with the idea to reduce the
countries dependency on their finite oil source, and instead focus on increasing the GDP by
developing other sectors. This also will help to reduce the competitiveness for jobs, which will
ultimately help the migrant percentage of Saudi Arabia, with an assumed amount of 1.9 million
Saudis to join the workforce over the next decade. The Vision will also help accommodate the
increasing usage of amenities and services by developing their sectors such as health.

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 looks to diversify its economy, and develop things such as their
infrastructure, to help with the growing competition for housing. Their main goals are to help
produce a healthy and stable population, effective social training and world class education and
training. With these goals it is also promoting and increasing the female population that join the
workforce, which is helping to bring in female labour migrants that could possibly help to even out
the gender ratio (though with the amount of male labour migrants it could be a while before this

17
happens). According to the data from the Vision 2030-page, labour female participation within the
private sector has increased from 19.4% to 35.6%, an increase of 16.2%.

The Vision was put in place by the government to help develop its other sectors so that when their
oil source runs out, the country can still sustain itself. The Vision attempts to make the GDP of the
private sector increase from 40% to 65%, as well as increase the GDP produced from non-oil exports
from 16% to 50% by 2030. This has proved to be working as non-oil government revenue has
increased by 122% in the past few years, from 44 billion dollars in 2015 to 107 billion dollars in 2021,
an increase of 63 billion.

There are problems with this though. Parts of the population have brought up that the Vision
attempts to decrease the number of jobs in the public sector, which is where majority of the country
works in, and increase the number of jobs in other sectors. These sectors would include military
manufacturing, information technology and more. Currently, more than two thirds of the population
working in the public sector, which are jobs mainly run by the government. With the Vision 2030, the
government states they will try to ‘cut tedious bureaucracy’ and reduce the amount of money they
invest overall. In a country were majority work in high paying government jobs, this could lead to
even more unemployment within the country. The Vision states as one of their important points that
the government are trying to promote new jobs within other sectors to help develop them. But these
sectors are rather specialized, where in which training and an education for these sectors would be
needed to prepare the population for jobs within them. This will greatly impact those in the low to
middle income families, as they will not be able to afford this training and education to help prepare
them for the private and other sector jobs. Even though the vision states that the government will
attempt to support those who will be the most vulnerable to this change, many Arabians have stated
there is no clear way for the government to distinguish those who need the financial support from
those who don’t, as the income tax will stay the same, making it harder for the government to
determine those who are worse off economically.

Another response the government has made is a change to Saudi Arabia’s Labour Law, in 2015, to
help with their migrant workers. The Council of Ministers approved a total number of 38
amendments to the Saudi Arabia Labour Law in 2015 with examples such as raising or introducing
fines for employers who violate their regulations, which can involve things like failing to pay salaries
on time, as well as preventing the confiscation of migrant workers’ passports. This was all likely done
to help labour migrants have an easier access to entering the country as well as giving them a more
stable way of earning money.

There were no problems with this, but hardly any outstanding changes happened within the country,
as this did not help fix the unemployment rate, or the number of jobs available. All it simply did was
help migrants enter the country and help those who already have jobs. So then in 2021, another
change was made.

Another response the government put in place to help its migrant workers was the Labour Reform
Initiative, an initiative put in place in 2021 to replace the old kafala, or sponsorship, policy with a new
contract based one.
The new replaced policy would help foreign labour migrants to freely enter and exit the country, as
well as have the choice to change employers in their first year of their contract. The Saudi
Government believe that the freedom to enter and exit the country and the right to choose their
employer is essential for migrants so that they can more greatly benefit the economy. This is meant
to help make the allocation of labour in the Saudi economy more efficient, which should then
improve economic growth within the coming years.

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The problem people have noticed with this is that it will increase the risk of unemployment for
migrant workers, however this has been covered up by the Saudi government by bringing up the idea
of introducing ‘Mobility Saving Accounts’, or MSAs, for migrant workers, and potentially have their
employers contribute some sort of financial mean that could help migrants from falling into
unemployment, so if they decide to change employers they will have a source of money while
changing.

The problems faced by Saudi Arabia have mostly been attempted to be fixed by the Saudi
government, but there are still a few holes within these solutions that need to be patched for the
solutions to have the greatest benefit for the country.

Question 7
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030

This policy that was implemented by the Saudi Government has proved to be extremely effective and
successful in growing the GDP of the private sector, as well as steering the country away from their
dependency on oil. It has currently helped to develop its other sectors outside of the public sector,
where majority of the population works, with things such as education and healthcare getting more
recognition and funding by the government. This has then led to Saudi Arabia’s life expectancy,
literacy rate and relating characteristics to the developing sectors to begin to improve, which looks to
keep growing as Saudi Arabia develops as a country. However, I feel like what was overlooked the
most in this Vision was how the country was going to shift those working in the public sector to other
jobs in other sectors. As I spoke about in question 6, these jobs may require a certain amount of
training as some of these sector jobs require a high level of skill. This practically locks those who
cannot afford the training from shifting to these jobs. And what happens to labour migrants then?
Are they just not able to attain jobs outside of the public sector without any specific training? And
even though currently labour migrants make up majority of the private sector jobs, this then makes it
even harder for Arabian’s who make up majority of the public sector to enter the other sector jobs.
This overlooked part of the Vision has led to some serious problems that could occur by the time the
Vision’s effects are fully over with.

The different approach that the Vision could have taken was to think more about shifting the
population into another sector for the future generations. Keep all the basic ideas, with the country
shifting away from their dependency on oil while also being able to increase the GDP, but the
government could have made it so that the people of Saudi Arabia aren’t greatly affected by this
switch of sectors. Allow those who are in middle- and low-income families to continue working in the
public sector, so that means that labour migrants will continue to make up majority of the other
sectors, plus those Arabians who have the skills necessary for the new jobs. Instead, increase the
length of time that this vision will take to implement by a few years so that the population aged in
the low independent population of around 20-25 or even 20-30 will be able to take the training
needed for these jobs in advance so that when the vision is done, there will already be people to
take the jobs for the developed sectors. This will prevent the Arabians who don’t have the financial
support or the time to take up the training for these jobs from falling into unemployment. This
solution of prioritising the training of these jobs for the younger age brackets will help Saudi Arabia
slowly shift into their new developing sectors without as many problems the Vision 2030 overlooks.

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Saudi Arabia Labour Law and Labour Reform Initiative

These two policies the Saudi Government implemented practically had the same purpose. A policy or
response that was aimed to help the migrant workers that came into Saudi Arabia. The first response
the government took to help migrant workers was to update the Labour Law. A total of 38 changes
where made, and this was meant to help to growth of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. However, it
didn’t prove to work as well as the government wanted, as it just led to a bigger percentage of
migrants and not enough jobs to go around. In 2021 the government made an even bigger change,
replacing the sponsorship policy with a new one. This new policy was meant to help migrants freely
enter and exit the country like the first response the government took. However, the difference was
that this new policy would also allow the migrants the choice to change employers within their first
year of their contract. This was meant to make the allocation of jobs become more efficient, but the
risk of unemployment was still just as high as in the first policy, barely improving anything. Even more
migrants were entering the country, and only a few extra jobs were able to be thrown about. The
government covered up the risk of unemployment to this by bringing up the idea of ‘Mobility Saving
Accounts’ to help lift some of the financial burden. However, it is unclear what would happen with
these accounts and how they would be implemented into the country. These two responses sound
good from first glance, but with the multiple problems that stem from it, it feels like these
government responses were rushed, greatly flawed, and not properly thought through.

What the government could have done to help make these responses more effective and instead
only of needed one of them instead of two, would be to think more about how these migrants will
be able to get the jobs they need. The percentage of migrants in Saudi Arabia is already high enough,
so the idea of having more migrants being able to come into the country freely should be
implemented later, once Saudi Arabia is able to support all the migrants it currently has. If we take
into the ideas presented when speaking about the Vision 2030, these migrants will be able to attain
more of the private sector jobs, as many of the Arabians will be taking up majority of the public
sector jobs. As the number of developed sectors with the introduction of Vision 2030, the number of
jobs should increase with it, leading for more migrants to take up these jobs. This will help draw
more the high skilled migrants who can take these jobs into the country, and ultimately push those
who cannot take these jobs away, as oil-based jobs will soon no longer be needed, lowering the
number of migrants to a number that Saudi Arabia can fully support. After the Vision 2030, then
Saudi Arabia should fully allow the free movement of entering and exiting the country for migrants.
But with the current competition for jobs, it seems like a waste to encourage migrants to move into
the country to look for work.

If the government had thought a bit more about their responses to their issue of migrant workers,
they would be able to eventually support all the migrants that want to come into the country. This
applies with the Vision 2030 as well, if the government had focused more on what the full effect of
the vision was, they could have slightly amended to prevent any problems from happening. While
Saudi Arabia might be able to avoid these issues in the coming years, there will still be problems they
will face in terms of migrant percentage and unemployment levels in their future.

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