Breakingviews - Cox: Saudi crown prince revealed his magic number

Breakingviews - Cox: Saudi crown prince revealed his magic number:

"The key number to emerge from Saudi Arabia’s big financial confab last week wasn’t a sum of money, or an economic target, but a year - 1979. To thousands of foreign dignitaries, journalists and his own subjects, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman vowed to return the kingdom his family has ruled since 1932 to the more moderate society that prevailed before the siege of the Grand Mosque 38 years ago. He may need the global financial community’s help to make it happen.

Saudi has doled out money to global institutions for decades, hoping to generate income for its monarchy. Now the crown prince is turning the tables. At the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, the heir to the throne exhorted global entrepreneurs, business leaders and money managers to put some of their treasure to work in the kingdom. A precondition for that should be that Saudi modernizes, improving the role of women and establishing a more just criminal justice system.

The pitch is sinking in. “The opening up of Saudi Arabia - to try to take things back to before 1979 - is brave, it’s bold,“ Richard Branson said at the so-called ”Davos in the desert“ hosted by the country’s Public Investment Fund last week. The Virgin Group founder is considering backing tourism enterprises along Saudi Arabia’s unspoiled coastline on the Red Sea. ”Young people want it, the women want it and I think most sensible men want it too.”"



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