By Abdul Aziz Al-Samari
WE have followed the principle of “better late than never” as we have launched most of our smart initiatives very late. This unjustifiable delay has brought about heavy economic losses to the Kingdom. This underlines the fact that every delay is not good. For example, we have noticed remarkable delay in carrying out railway projects in the country. No doubt, railway is the most suitable transport means to connect various regions of the vast Kingdom. Budget allocation for the vital project was delayed citing impracticability as a reason.
We had to pay a huge price for this delay.
We are now running against time to complete some important projects in various sectors. The delay in implementing them has increased cost of construction.
We have noticed big delay in carrying out educational reforms and introducing higher education in various parts of the Kingdom. We have experienced the dominance of illiteracy on our society for many years as a result of this delay.
Some students had to travel to neighboring countries like Egypt, Yemen and Jordan to complete higher education and this has contributed to the spread of extremism and deviant ideologies.
There was considerable delay in changing the oil-based economy as the Kingdom has been depending on petroleum for 90 percent of its revenue. We have introduced a number of initiatives to solve this problem but it did not create enough jobs in the private sector.
The use of solar energy for household purpose also came late after many countries have made substantial progress in generating alternative energy sources. The introduction of two-way meters will transform the society from energy consumers to energy producers.
This system has been successfully applied in many Asian countries such as Jordan, Sri Lanka and Morocco. Western countries provide financial support to such initiatives considering its role in achieving energy self-sufficiency and reducing dependence on oil-powered generators.
For the last two years, the Saudi Electricity Company has been talking about distributing smart meters to our homes but we have not seen anything on the ground. We don’t know how smart it would be and whether it would read both electric and solar energy supplies.
Despite the remarkable progress in electricity and alternative energy production, we don’t see any national initiatives in this respect except individual attempts in the disorganized market. We also do not see any government initiative to transform homes into energy producers and solar energy users in order to reduce local oil consumption at subsidized prices. We can see such initiatives in many countries.
Some people think that industry is not a national choice and we have seen unjustified delay in implementing many industrial projects. If industry is not the choice what will be the choice of a country that is facing population explosion?
I believe that industry can play a significant role in boosting the Kingdom’s economy and accelerating its diversification drive, rather than agriculture and tourism.
We should also make use of smart administrative systems to boost our growth in various sectors because smart initiatives will not come from administrators who follow traditional systems because of bureaucratic delays and corrupt practices. Inaction and inefficiency are the hallmarks of most senior administrators as if they are hit by paralysis.
