First of all this report is unfounded and at best a malicious rumor.
Just like the lie that was parroted about MbS buying that Da Vinci painting for 450 million USD. It was later proven that it was bought by UAE (Abu Dhabi Louvre).
Read my initial posts in this thread.
You must be kidding?
As for local industries, they are booming and developing in the right direction and there is an enormous potential. Go check out the Arab section or visit the "Made in KSA" thread.
Universities? Are you kidding me? KSA has the best ranked universities in the Muslim world and Saudi Arabians are some of the most educated people in the Muslim and developing world. We have the highest amount of students per capita at leading US universities in the world outside of US citizens themselves.
Global Nature Magazine; Saudi Arabia ranks 28th worldwide in high quality scientific publishing
KSA is also located 31st worldwide in the Nature Index of 2016. The 2017 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016.
https://www.natureindex.com/annual-tables/2017/country/all
Best performing Muslim nation.
Related article (in the highly respected Nature) published 1.5 years ago;
https://www.nature.com/articles/532S13a
Saudi Arabian universities (with the highest ranks overall of any other regional country):
http://www.shanghairanking.com/World-University-Rankings-2017/Saudi-Arabia.html
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1180431/saudi-arabia
Oiling the wheels on a road to success
Pakinam Amer
Nature 532,
Published online
27 April 2016
With the benefit of a sustainable plan and the funds to back it, Saudi Arabia is aiming high.
Saudi Arabia's scientific development may be in its infancy, but the oil-rich Kingdom is making strides in terms of research investment and publication — with a clear ambition to one day join those in the highest echelons.
KAUST students embark on a new school year with a commencement ceremony. The relatively new university has quickly made an impact on the Nature Index.
In 2012, Saudi Arabia had a weighted fractional count (WFC) of 52.84 in the index, sitting behind Turkey, Iran, Mexico, Chile and South Africa. In four years it rose 86.8% to reach a WFC of 98.67, leapfrogging all these countries to compete with Chile and Argentina globally. Saudi Arabia ranks at number 31 in the world in terms of WFC — up from 39 in 2012.
The country has risen even higher in specific subject areas. In chemistry, for example, it has surpassed countries with a strong scientific impact like Finland and Ireland, with its WFC rising to 66.54, achieving almost a three-fold increase from its position in 2012.
Institutionally, the country's leading science hub King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) made an impressive leap in its WFC between 2012 and 2015, carving a place for itself to compete with American and European research powerhouses.
In just four years, its WFC has risen to become higher than those of prestigious institutions including the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), the University of Georgia, United States, and Dresden University of Technology, Germany, to name a few. The output of all of these institutions dwarfed KAUST's in 2012, but KAUST's impressive trajectory since then has seen its WFC shoot to 72 in 2015, overtaking these heavy-hitters.
The country's science development ambitions have been backed by action. Since 2008, the country has embarked on a multi-tiered strategy that will see the Kingdom overhaul its science infrastructure, build high-spec labs, secure grants for research in priority areas in applied science, and link science to industries that drive the economy.
The strategy, broken into four stages to be implemented by 2030, aims to eventually “see Saudi Arabia become a leader in Asia and give it an economic power based on science,” says Abdulaziz Al-Swailem, vice president of scientific research support at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).
The Saudi Human Genome Project will sequence 100,000 human genomes to conduct biomedical research in the Saudi population.
Saudi Arabia's march to the top
Saudi Arabia's efforts to boost its scientific research have been paying off, with its output in the Nature Index (WFC) rising steadily over the years. The two graphs below highlight Saudi Arabia's rise compared to other nations, both overall and for chemistry.
Overall output
In 2012 Saudi Arabia's overall output in the index was below all the countries shown, but continuous efforts have seen the Kingdom's WFC rise to overtake them all in 2015.
Chemistry
More marked than its overall rise, Saudi Arabia has made great strides in chemistry. After accelerated growth, which saw the Kingdom's chemistry WFC triple since 2012, it has outshone many larger players in the field in 2015.
The Kingdom's science investments focus on applied research that feeds directly into the country's industrial interests, particularly the oil and energy sector. But even in its strong subjects, chemistry and the physical sciences, Saudi Arabia's WFC remains modest compared to big players in Asia like China, Japan and South Korea.
To truly swim comfortably with these bigger fish, Saudi Arabia may benefit from looking at successful emerging economies in Asia.
One inspiration could be
India. In addition to multi-disciplinary scientific and technical advancements that have improved its output in the index from 736.5 to 901.4 in the past four years, the subcontinental giant has joined the exclusive club of countries that have launched successful space missions.
Like Saudi Arabia, India's leading research institutes focus on chemistry, and their total output currently outstrips their Saudi Arabian counterparts by almost a factor of seven (the latter surpassing 472 in 2015, while the former is 66.5).
India's prowess in chemistry is something that Saudi Arabia can aspire to, considering that working conditions for researchers in the Kingdom are more conducive.
India's science ecosystem is far from perfect. Research funding cannot keep up with inflation and a general slowdown in the country's economy. In addition, commentators from the research community say the funding processes are lengthy, bureaucratic, and provide little feedback when applications for grants are turned down. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's healthy stream of oil revenue provides assured funding for the country's state-of-the-art research facilities.
While India has slightly increased spending and dedicated US$1.19 billion for the next fiscal year (2016–2017) for science, it has around 700 universities and 200,000 full-time researchers drawing on the same funding pot. By contrast, Saudi Arabia has pledged an education and training budget of US$50.9 billion for next year, which includes higher education and scientific research. With a total population of just 30 million, it has a much lower number of full-time researchers competing for the available resources.
Another impressive trajectory that Saudi Arabia might look to emulate is that of Singapore, which has a smaller population as well and has managed to climb high in the index. Like the Kingdom,
Singapore also has a focus on chemistry research, and it has put together a similar top-down national science strategy for research institutes across the country. Both countries have strong collaborations with top universities around the world and are welcoming of foreign researchers in their efforts to drive innovation.
Mansour Alghamdi, director of the general directorate of scientific awareness and publishing at KACST, is optimistic that Saudi Arabia can bridge the large gap that currently exists in the volume of scientific output between it and such countries as India and Singapore.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a clear plan to do so and it has the resources,” he says.
Future growth
An internationally rising star
This graph shows KAUST's rise compared to a selection of other institutions*.
*Institutions shown are those that were furthest above KAUST in 2012, have experienced overall growth in WFC by 2015 and have been overtaken by KAUST in 2015. For clarity, only 2012 and 2015 data points are shown.
In 2012, Saudi's ranking in research output, with a WFC of 52.8, meant it was comparable with countries like South Africa, Turkey and Iran, all hovering around the 60–70 mark. Its WFC stood way below countries like Mexico, Hungary, Chile, Greece and Argentina.
Saudi Arabian researchers benefit from cutting-edge labs and generous funding that has boosted the country's R&D.
Four years later, the country's research outlook is very different and it is surpassing countries like Argentina, Mexico and
Hungary in the index, and levelling the playing field with Chile. Chemistry research led the country's rapid rise to surpass these countries, but its life sciences and physical sciences WFCs of 8.5 and 31.5 still lag behind.
However, the Kingdom's AC has been steadily growing in these two fields over the past four years, hinting at the ever-increasing significance of international collaborations. It seems that Saudi Arabian researchers are casting their nets ever wider and are participating in publishing more articles, to the detriment of the WFC accredited for these articles.
Though international collaboration has proved fruitful, Saudi Arabia must keep a focus on nurturing home-grown talent, says Nasser Al-Aqeeli, dean of research at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), based in Dhahran's 'techno valley' in the eastern region of the Kingdom. In the next five years, he says, the country will focus on a programme for national capacity building.
A good first step was the Saudi government's decision to create a large scholarship programme in 2005, arguably the largest in the world, which has seen more than 200,000 young Saudi Arabians studying abroad. This makes Saudi Arabian students in the United States the fourth largest bloc of expatriate students, following those of China, India and South Korea. The government hopes these students will come back and drive a scientific culture in the country.
Saudi Arabia is also looking to increase its applied research focus, which is an integral part of the current phase of its national science strategy, while securing good funding for basic research as well. Al-Aqeeli says that Saudi's journey involves what he termed a “self-correcting mechanism” where the country is having a slow start in high-impact research, but a more sustainable one. An eventual future move towards basic research might help Saudi Arabia's research capacity to mature.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v532/n7600_supp_ni/full/532S13a.html
Agriculture? There are almost 100.000 farms in KSA and KSA was almost entirely self-sufficient on almost every front until wheat and other products that require a lot of water became too costly so instead imports and investments abroad or buying up land in Africa and elsewhere is preferred and rightly so. Future technology (desalination of sea water) etc. will ensure that KSA will always be self-sufficient as we have abundant land, sunshine and already almost every crop can grow in KSA in those areas where there is agriculture.
Visit this thread below;
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/olive-and-olive-oil-production-in-ksa.289789/
Open up your mind and do not swallow every propaganda out there.
Well, it's funny that the same Arabs that a Turkified (by virtue of that Islamized and Arabized too) Bulgarian Gypsy (using the language that you used - just as your compatriot was the first one to talk about slaves in this thread as everyone can see) like you is so obsessed about, you owe so much to in terms of almost every field. Your beloved Arabized Ottomans who stole (using your logic) the Caliphate from the Arabs after 1000 years of Arab rule were Arabized to a great extend from alphabet, language ,art, poetry, architecture, culture etc. As well as Persian and Greek influences. Without the Arabs beforehand there would be no Ottomans. Without Arabs lands you would be ruling small Anatolia and parts of tiny Balkan. No religious legitimacy either. That's the reality.
Your post is even funnier when Arabs and our ancestors have accomplished so much more than your likes. Cradle of civilization and everything. It's like a different universe. Let's forget the ancient history for a while (where you stand no chance) and just focus on Islamic history alone. Here we Arabs are also WAY ahead of you. Must hurt your likes.
Because the Umayyad, Abbasid and Rashidun empires are 3 of the 11 largest empires.
No, we are not. According to a census almost 7 years ago, there were 450 million Arabs worldwide. Today that number has reached 500 million.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabs
Some of the biggest population growth occurs in the Arab world in case you do not know this.
So wealthy people buying what wealthy people buy across the world have a complex? That's some amazing projecting there. As if you, if you escaped your current lifestyle and had access to money that you could spend as you wanted to, would not want to enjoy life. Rather you would probably enter a monastery somewhere in Bulgaristan. Great joke.
Right, as if rich folks in Turkey do not behave similarly. I can tell you that they do as I have encountered a few in the GCC and the West. No difference. Same goes for Western ones or Russian ones, South Asian ones or Chinese ones. However you know this very well but well, what to do when one has an obsession?
Not only that this thread is based on a baseless rumor. Nor is this the most expensive "house" or property in the world. Just a joke article from the notoriously biased NYT that has a long history of writing bullshit most recently the lie of MbS buying that Da Vinci painting which turned out to be a lie. One out of tons of their lies.
BTW speaking about corruption, we all know how corrupt Erdogan and his friends are. They are most likely as wealthy as some of the wealthiest families in KSA by now. Same story with the Iranian Mullah's and others. But you can close your eyes and blame Arabs for all your miseries. It's a favorite pastime by the usual suspects on PDF after all. An obsession that Arabs cannot repay.
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