This week, the hosts discuss the Kingdom’s 2022 budget, the Diriyah Art Biennale ongoing now outside of Riyadh, the Red Sea film festival, a philosophical discussion in Saudi Arabia, and whether the Kingdom will host Expo 2030.
1:00 – The Saudi Ministry of Culture hosted the Riyadh Philosophy Conference with a virtual talk from professor Michael Sandel.
A major international conference on philosophy has been held in Saudi Arabia aimed at encouraging critical thinking, according to the BBC and other local sources.
In a virtual appearance, Harvard professor Michael Sandel – who’s been described as having the global profile of a rock star – “told the organizers that he didn’t want to give a lecture, but instead sought to engage directly with young Saudis, including women,” the BBC reports.
The hosts discuss the importance of the rare event in Saudi Arabia.
6:14 –Expo 2030 in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia has officially submitted a bid to host Expo 2030 in Riyadh, with the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC) CEO Fahd Al-Rasheed submitting the Kingdom’s bid while addressing a virtual gathering of 170 member countries assembled to kickstart the five-stage bidding process that will conclude with voting in November 2023.According to the local english daily Saudi Gazette, the Kingdom’s dossier submission came in its participation in the virtual meeting of the Bureau of International Exhibitions (BIE) General Assembly, which was held Tuesday in Paris.Saudi Arabia has four rivals to fend off in hopes of securing the bid: South Korea, Italy, the Ukraine, and Russia are in the running for the six-month long event organized by the BIE.
“The 2030 World Expo in Riyadh will coincide with the culmination of Vision 2030, and it will be an extraordinary opportunity to showcase the achievements of the Vision and share valuable lessons from this unprecedented transformation,” Al-Rasheed said in announcing the plan.
10:44 – Saudi Arabia’s art and culture industry is blossoming.
Saudi Arabia’s inaugural Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, which is underway and runs until March, is getting praise from critics and visitors alike. The ongoing event overlapped briefly with another cultural milestone in Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom’s first ever major film festival in Jeddah. Writing in Artnet.com, Nadine Khalil called displays and performances in Riyadh as part of the Biennale “paradigm-shifting moments”
On one performance, Khalil said, “People seemed compelled not just by the visceral choreography of women performing live, but by the act of witnessing this historic moment in the artistic life of a country.”
The Art Newspaper, another strong source in the industry, said the inaugural Diriyah Biennale and the opening of Hayy Jameel “are the latest in a series of initiatives helping the kingdom emerge from artistic isolation.”
The Art Newspaper goes on to say, “while the dusty Riyadh air was thick with pronouncements of “game-changing” and even “world-changing,” the hyperbole was not far off. For the relatively isolated Saudi art scene, 2021/22 will be a moment of decisive shift.”
29:23 –Saudi Arabia’s 2022 budget – it’s final. And the Saudi economy has a head of steam going into 2022.
Saudi Arabia released its budget for the 2022 fiscal year following the endorsement by the Council of Ministers on December 12th, with a few changes from the preliminary budget released earlier in September this year.
As expected, Saudi Arabia is expected to register its first fiscal surplus since 2013.
Despite the Kingdom’s strong position, the budget notes that it will not spend more. Total expenditure for 2022 is set to be $254.56 billion, that’s 6 percent lower than actual expenditure this year in 2021.
The budget announcement earlier this week comes on the back of mounting evidence of a Saudi economy that could have a big near next year.
Saudi Arabia’s economy expanded 7% in Q3, the highest rate since 2012.
Riyadh said on Sunday it expected the economy to grow 2.9% this year and 7.4% next year.
40:53 – ‘Yallah: Saudi in a Minute’
A new weekly segment for The 966 is launched. Yallah: Saudi in a Minute includes a quick rundown of other top storylines in Saudi Arabia to get you caught up before the weekend.