Subject: Policy Actions to Improve Saudi Arabia’s Economy
I would like to take this opportunity to address the economic development and eradication of poverty issues amongst our Saudi Arabia people. The current Coronavirus pandemic has stagnated economic growth worldwide since it was discovered because of the restrictions imposed by nations to curb its spreading. For instance, the suspension of entry into the country leads to decreased foreign exchange. The development and growth of an economy depend on several aspects: distribution and human resources, macroeconomic development policies for agriculture, trade, and sustainability, among others (Perkins et al., 2013). The application of some recommendations in these factors can lead to the country’s economy’s growth in many ways.
The distribution of human resources is an essential factor of production in any economy. A well-equipped labor force can lead to increased productivity in our country. Inequality and poverty levels in the country, demographic composition, literacy levels, and health are some of the government’s policies in this labor sector. A nation’s degree of poverty is determined by its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is calculated annually by the World Bank, and our country’s GDP is $792.97 billion in 2019 (Alsaedi & Tularam, 2020). The health and education policies are directly affected by the poverty levels.
Health policies are strategies to ensure that people are mentally, socially, and physically well, not the mere absence of diseases. As the head of government, you should consider improving the quality of the current workforce by having an educational infrastructure. The pandemic has killed some of our physicians and nurses, thus reducing their numbers, and a future deficit is a possibility. With more space in higher learning institutions, more people can be trained ad practitioners to curb the current and future struggles. The public-owned and public-funded health system should be changed to give private insurance a priority to help reduce the costs of running and maintaining the facilities. Transitions in global health are generally advised because it is the sector that the pandemic has affected the most.
The macroeconomic development policies have also been negatively affected by the pandemic, and there is a need to have new plans that incorporate the pandemic’s damages. Various areas have been impacted, such as investments and savings, financial developments and inflation, foreign aid and debt, financial crises, the open economy, and fiscal policy (Perkins et al., 2013). Fiscal policy is an action by the government to increase its expenditures or reduces taxation on people and loan interest rates in a nation to help low-income individuals. Most of our country’s revenue is from oil production and exportation. With the reduced economic activities in the world and transport regulations, the income from international businesses is reduced. The government had to reduce the tax rates to help the citizens not struggle to pay; thus, your government expenditure was heavily affected. Your government’s focus should be on monetary policies to help people access easy loans at low-interest rates to ensure economic growth continuity. Increased expenditures from the reserves and economic contractions to state-owned enterprises are essential in such situations. The ministry of finance should also increase fiscal discipline to cater to fiscal slippages that may lead to downgrades.
Agriculture, trade, and sustainability are important factors in the development of any economy. Agriculture and trade policies are inseparable since they sustain each other economically, from buying farm inputs to selling the outputs. Export orientation focuses on the production of commodities for the international markets, a macro environment (Perkins, 2013). New technology has seen increased developments in the sectors, with heavy machinery that has reduced the use of manual laborers on the farms and the use of import substitutes. The sectors have been at the core of ensuring that the living standards of the people have increased.
Trade policy contains how the government should use it to ensure that the local and international markets are well maintained. There are several recommendations for this policy, such as import substitutions, protective tariffs, and trade protection. Local producers should also be protected since the pandemic limited the foreign markets, thus reducing revenue. As the King, you can lower production taxes and increase taxes imposed on foreign goods. These policies have already worked before, therefore, they can work during this COVID-19 time.
And lastly, we can see how the pandemic has put the country’s economy at stake, and easy-to-implement measures are necessary. These recommendations that I have proposed have worked in some parts of the world, and they can help the country to cater to the losses that the virus has caused. The health sector being the most affected, its policies should be implemented fast to reduce life losses, especially by the health workers. The fiscal and trade policies are core in the running of the economy of any nation. In addition to the strategies in place by the government presently, the recommendations can help the economy rise again. If there could be a need to have more information on any of my recommendations, feel free to contact me. Thank you.
References
Perkins, D., Radelet, S., Lindauer, D., & Block, S. (2013). Economics of development (7th ed). W. W. Norton & Company.
Alsaedi, Y. H., & Tularam, G. A. (2020). The relationship between electricity consumption, peak load, and GDP in Saudi Arabia: A VAR analysis. Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, 175, 164–178.