That’s another thing I never got about Saudi’s investments. To me the obvious strategy with all the money would have been to not invest in empty skyscrapers or foreign investments, but pick two or three areas in which you massively bolster research and investment in an area like solar energy. Investment would be local and you try to attract all to talent in the field for both fundamental research as well as to fund companies.
Investing in the Vision Fund might safe the cash, but does little for the economic future of UAE.
The Saudis have also done that with KAUST; from what I heard they have turned off all their weird laws in this region of SA (like a SEZ), and were hiring aggressively a few years ago (from the US). I occasionally stumble on some interesting projects from this University, but I for one would be very weary of moving to a desert region where women were disallowed from driving until a few years back, and need to be draped from head to toe in black.
To be fair, there is something more in the picture. UAE for instance is much more cosmopolitan, but has failed to be a research hub, in contrast to rich city states like Singapore. Iran, their neighbour, produces some very smart people however - who then inevitably move out, considering the flavour regime in that country.
Norway's sovereign wealth fund is vastly larger than the Saudi Arabian one, SA don't have much room to maneuver if the Aramco ipo doesn't work and these investments fail
When you have so much money to play with, there is just no one basket to put even most of your eggs in. Yes, they have put many into Vision Fund, but many other arenas (especially political ones) demand funding and will not go unfed by mama bird and her oil money.
Saudi Arabia has a problem in that its far larger than UAE and it is also the home of Islam. Loosening cultural restrictions might fly in Dubai, but I'm not sure the Muslim world would be as okay with the same happening in the country that hosts their most sacred site.
Why not? Most of the Muslim world is far less restrictive than Saudi Arabia. And even if they don't like some future loosened restriction there's nothing they can do about it.
