Saudi Arabia has passed the midpoint of its transformative Vision 2030 programme, and the kingdom’s own National Competitiveness Center reports that 87 percent of the initiative’s key performance indicators are either on track or ahead of their 2025 interim targets — a performance that few observers anticipated when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the programme in April 2016.
The Headline Numbers
Non-oil GDP as a share of total Saudi economic output reached 52 percent in 2025 — above the Vision 2030 interim target of 50 percent and on a trajectory to exceed the 2030 target of 65 percent if current diversification trends continue. Foreign direct investment inflows reached SAR 96 billion in 2025, approaching the 2030 target of SAR 150 billion with five years remaining. The number of Saudi women in the workforce stood at 33 percent in 2025, up from 17 percent in 2016 — one of Vision 2030’s most visible social transformations.
Sectors Ahead of Target
Tourism dramatically outpaced projections: Saudi Arabia welcomed 100 million visitors in 2025 — meeting the 2030 target five years early. Religious tourism (Hajj and Umrah) combined with leisure and business tourism across Riyadh, AlUla, and the Red Sea drove an estimated USD 26 billion in tourism revenue. The entertainment sector — virtually nonexistent before 2016 — generated SAR 22 billion in 2025 through cinemas, concerts, sporting events, and theme parks.
Challenges Remaining for the 2030 Sprint
Localisation targets — Saudisation — remain challenging in engineering, technology, and financial services. The SME sector’s contribution to GDP stands at 31 percent against a 35 percent target. Private sector investment in R&D lags at 0.5 percent of GDP against a 2.5 percent 2030 goal. For international businesses weighing Saudi Arabia market strategy, these gaps represent the sectors where the government will apply the strongest regulatory and incentive pressure over the next four years — creating opportunity for companies that can help Saudi Arabia close them.
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Primary source: the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), which publishes the non-oil output data the progress is measured against.
