Riyadh, April 28, 2021, SPA -- His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, discussed the most important achievements of the Kingdom Vision 2030 programs and projects over the past five years, in an interview transmitting on the state’s television and the most important Arab television channels. HRH Crown Prince affirmed that oil greatly served the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, pointing out that the Kingdom has been a country established before the oil. HRH Crown Prince disclosed that the volume of income and growth achieved by oil is much greater than our needs at that time, particularly in the thirties and forties, adding that the volume of the surplus of income and economic growth was much more than we were aspiring for by hundreds of times. HRH Crown Prince said that “there was an impression that oil would cover all the Kingdom's needs. Of course, at that time (the thirties and forties), the population of the Kingdom was less than three million. It might be much less. Riyadh’s population, at that time, was 150,000 people.” He added, as time went by, that “the volume of production increased very slightly, but the size of the population growth increased enormously from one million, two million, and three million to twenty million Saudi citizens. So, oil covered the needs and the manner of living that we have been accustomed to since the sixties and seventies. He added that "if we were to proceed, in the same manner, with the growth of the population, this will affect, after twenty years or ten years, the quality of life that we have been accustomed for fifty years." HRH Crown Prince affirmed the Kingdom's desire to maintain the same level of quality of life and even better, as time goes by, with the aim of keeping growth, in addition to the risk that the Kingdom's economy would be depending mainly on oil, as well as what will oil be facing as challenges in the next forty or fifty years and its limited utilization, or the prices will be less in the distant perspective. His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman indicated that there might be a dysfunction in the economic situation in the Kingdom as well as economic and financial repercussions, at the individual and national level, that may have dire consequences. Meanwhile, he added that “there are many opportunities in the Kingdom in various sectors other than the oil sector, including mining, tourism, logistics and investment. There are huge opportunities. There is still a very strong desire and motivation that we aspire to benefit from as Saudis for our beloved country. I believe that these are two main drivers for the Vision 2030 in order to eliminate the challenges that face us as well as to exploit the untapped opportunities that may constitute 90% of the situation today. We will continue to grow and prosper in order to compete on all fronts. --More 20:26 LOCAL TIME 17:26 GMT 0026 www.spa.gov.sa/w1550469