With 2026 drawing to a close, two years of steady work led by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, have left effects that reach from the national accounts to family homes, from car assembly lines to artificial intelligence data centres, as Vision 2030 turns into results that can be measured.<\/p>\n
The economy set the tone. Real GDP grew 4.5 percent in 2025 and non-oil activities 4.9 percent, according to the General Authority for Statistics. The Vision 2030 annual report for the same year showed that 309 of 390 indicators had met or exceeded their interim targets.<\/p>\n
The Crown Prince placed those figures in a wider frame when he delivered the annual royal address on behalf of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, opening the third year of the Shura Council’s ninth session. He said Vision 2030 programmes and strategies had achieved 93 percent of their targets, non-oil exports had grown 155 percent compared with 2016, and the private sector’s share of the economy had reached 51 percent.<\/p>\n
Unemployment among Saudi citizens stood at 6.5 percent in the second quarter of 2026, according to the General Authority for Statistics, down from 12.3 percent at the end of 2016.<\/p>\n
On housing and quality of life, the Crown Prince in March 2025 ordered a package of measures to rebalance the property market in Riyadh. Restrictions on sales, purchases and development were lifted on two areas in the north of the capital measuring 17 and 16.2 square kilometres, bringing the total land opened for development to 81.48 square kilometers.<\/p>\n
The Royal Commission for Riyadh City was tasked with supplying 10,000 to 40,000 residential plots a year for five years, at no more than SAR 1,500 per square metre, for citizens who do not own property. A five-year freeze on residential and commercial rent increases inside Riyadh’s urban boundary followed, covering existing and new leases, after the Council of Ministers approved rules issued at the Crown Prince’s direction.<\/p>\n
Technology took a decisive step with the launch of HUMAIN, a Public Investment Fund company chaired by the Crown Prince. It works across the full artificial intelligence chain, from data centres and cloud computing to building an Arabic large language model, with the aim of making the Kingdom a global hub for the sector.<\/p>\n
His confirmation in the Shura address that 2026 had been named the Year of Artificial Intelligence gave that direction further momentum.<\/p>\n
Industry reached its own milestone in September 2026, when the Crown Prince launched the first cars from CEER, the Saudi automotive brand the Public Investment Fund founded in 2022.<\/p>\n
The EXOBOT sedan and SUV are the first of seven models CEER plans to release over five years from its plant in the King Salman Automotive Cluster at King Abdullah Economic City, with an expected contribution to GDP of more than SAR 30 billion by 2034.<\/p>\n
Tourism kept climbing as well. The Kingdom welcomed 122.6 million tourists in 2025, who spent SAR 303.7 billion, according to the Ministry of Tourism’s statistical report.<\/p>\n
Health and community work had a place too. The Crown Prince donated blood in Riyadh to launch the annual national blood donation campaign for the second year running, after more than 900,000 people gave blood in 2025, according to the Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n
Abroad, the Crown Prince’s official visit to Washington in November 2025 underlined the Kingdom’s standing as a global economic partner. the two countries signed agreements covering artificial intelligence, civil nuclear energy, critical minerals, and education and training.<\/p>\n
These results leave the Kingdom closing two full years with a more diversified economy, citizens who feel the effect of decisions in their homes and daily lives, and an international presence that grows year after year as 2030 approaches.<\/p>\n
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