Building a modern economy
When the modern Kingdom was established in 1932, the Arabian Peninsula was an agricultural society that depended on farming and commerce – especially date exports and trade generated by pilgrims coming to Makkah and Madinah. It lacked the infrastructure needed to support the kind of economic growth envisioned by its founder, King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al-Saud.

The discovery of oil in commercial quantities in 1938 changed that.  Soon after World War II, steady oil exports provided the funds to build a basic infrastructure of roads, airports, seaports, schools and hospitals.

In 1970, Saudi Arabia introduced the first of a series of ongoing five-year development plans to build a modern economy capable of producing consumer and industrial goods that previously had been imported. The country’s infrastructure was expanded, allowing industry and commerce to flourish.

At the same time, the national oil company, Aramco, invested in new production facilities, pipelines, plants and shipping facilities and continued exploring for new deposits to maximize earnings from the oil sector, which were needed to fund further growth.

The result has been a steady economic transformation of the country. Today, Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest developing countries in the world.