It’ll be interesting to see how the Arab states will diversify their economies in the next decade. There’s really not much to exploit there except oil, so unless they pump out enough money to basically rest on their investments in perpetuity I’m really not sure what to expect.
They have deserts for solar energy and cheap workers. What else do they need?
Food and fresh water
Desalination is cheap enough for human consumption. It can be too expensive to grow food but food can be imported.
I would actually love to see Saudi Arabia take the lead on food engineering. They might lack fresh water, but they have immense amounts of land and sun to play with.
The only alternative I can see is a mass reforestation project.
Properly scaled up, this type of community reforestation effort could work.
Solar powered greenhouses and desalination.
I assume you mean gulf States, cause most Arab States don’t have that much oil if any. A lot of them have agricultural economy.
They (the royal family) have grown up pissing away massive amounts of money. Why stop now?
Paywall
The wisdom of these gigprojects in the middle of a desert aside, it would be awesome more governments would stop trying to run themselves into the ground for profit. Because who the fuck is benefiting if a country is taking more in taxes then they are providing their citizens in services?
Which countries are running on a profit, exactly?
Well none, but the Neo-liberal rhetoric around “balancing the budget” that infests most of the governments of the west.
Loads of countries have budget surpluses.
Loads? These aren’t exactly major nations here and the bigger ones are oil producers.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-top-budget-surplus.html
I asked which ones. Denmark has a surplus, but that’s accidental and no one’s trying to keep it that way.
And if you’re about to give Qatar as an example, the point is moot.
This doesn’t answer the question.
KSA actually hands out money to citizens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen's_Account_Program_(Saudi_Arabia)
