Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans for Saudi reform are being backed by young people in the country.
Ninety percent of Saudi youth believe the prince’s plans for their country will be beneficial. 97 percent believe he is a “strong” leader, according to the ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller survey involving 3,500 young people from 16 Arab nations.
Vision 2030 is proving popular with the younger generation, with the survey showing 92 percent are confident it will be a success. The future heir’s plans to diversify the economy’s reliance away from oil is underway. The Saudi Prince has also been making waves by allowing women to drive and reopening cinemas.
Eighty percent of the youths want to see Arab leaders do more to “improve the personal freedoms and human rights of women”, with 88 percent of all participants in favour of Saudi Arabia allowing women to drive. Last year, King Salaman decreed that Saudi women will no longer need a man’s permission to travel, study or make police complaints. Now, Mohammed Bin Salman has said that he wants more women to enter the workplace. Whilst the country is seeing this progress being made, there is still a lot of resistance. 17 percent of young Saudi women and 19 percent of young Saudi men oppose the reform allowing women to drive.
Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS as he’s colloquially known, instigated a crackdown on corruption in 2017 that saw numerous businessmen, government officials and fellow Saudi princes detained, and many of their assets handed over to the state. This was praised by 94 percent of the Saudi youth that took part in the survey.
However, when the 3,500 young people were asked which of a series of influential leaders would have the biggest impact on the Arab world in the next 10 years, 25 percent believed that Donald Trump would, whilst only 15 percent believed the Crown Prince would have the biggest impact.
