Saudi Arabia is preparing well for the G20 summit this year and welcoming visitors to the Kingdom, said Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman alongside other senior ministers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“You can get your visa in five minutes. Seeing [Saudi] is better than imagining it. Come over and visit,” said Prince Abdulaziz, concluding the “Strategic priorities for Saudi Arabia’s G20 presidency in 2020” panel alongside senior ministers from the Kingdom.
The G20 summit provides an opportunity for the Kingdom to advance “some of the new ideas that Saudi Arabia is putting forward, whether in policy options or the like, where other countries particularly low income can use to promote their economy,” said Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan.
It is also an opportunity “to receive the G20 guests, to show them what Saudi Arabia is about, to show them how hospitable we are and what we can show them as a country,” he added.
The panel – Prince Abdulaziz, alongside Minister of Finance Mohammed al-Jadaan, Minister of Communications Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Economy Mohammad Al Tuwaijri, and Assistant Minister to the Minister of Commerce Dr. Eiman Al-Mutairi – also discussed a range of topics ranging from AI to climate change.
Energy security
One of the key topics discussed on the panel was energy security.
The Kingdom has the “ability to be the savior of the so-called concept of energy security,” said Prince Abdulaziz.
“We are trying to monetize every element of this hydrocarbon resource that we have … The engineers say it is doable, the finance say it is doable,” explained Prince Abdulaziz.
He added that the G20 was an opportunity to showcase Saudi Arabia’s energy progress and that it was “attending to its own energy requirements.”
Prince Abdulaziz also brought attention to the Kingdom’s trillion-tree initiative.
“We in Saudi Arabia have this initiative of a trillion trees to be grown by everybody,” he said, adding that “You cannot attend to energy sustainability and stability without looking at every option there is. We have to agree that we have to be energy-source neutral. We will make sure the winner takes it all,” he said.
He called on the world to combat dumping and added that the Kingdom had called on the G20 to act on climate change.
