Muhammad bin Salman, who is also the country’s defence minister, said in an interview with The Economist that Saudi Arabia was far from facing an economic crisis and non-oil revenues had increased this year by 29%.
There were many opportunities in mining, including more than 6% of world reserves of uranium and many unutilised assets, with the prospect of building non-oil revenues to $100bn over the next five years.
He also said the healthcare and educational sectors, some military industries and specific state-owned companies would be privatised to raise revenues.
In a separate statement on Friday, Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil producer confirmed it is considering a stock market flotation in what would create one of the most valuable listed companies in the world.
Saudi Aramco said that the kingdom was looking at various options, including the listing of “an appropriate percentage of the company’s shares and/or the listing of a bundle [of] its downstream subsidiaries”.
