#WEF20: 4 Facts On Economic Reforms & Women Empowerment in Saudi Arabia

This year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) overflowed with Ministers from Saudi Arabia taking part in panel discussing the new economic era and the upcoming G20. Leading voice and female powerhouse Dr. Eiman Al Mutairi centered her talk around the G20 and the sweeping wave of reforms in the Kingdom, which increased women’s role in the economy. Here’s a roundup of factual quotes shared by the Saudi Assistant Minister of Commerce and Investment at 2020 WEF in Davos.

OPINION: Saudi Arabia is chairing #G20 in 2020 in what will be a pivotal year, where the global economy is threatened by slowing growth, rising geopolitical tensions and the threat of a global pandemic thrown in for good measure, writes @faisalfaeq https://t.co/15oZD4Zvw5 pic.twitter.com/GytPvVM3xu

— Arab News Japan (@ArabNewsjp) January 27, 2020

1. Saudi Arabia is the only Arab country to be a member of the G20 

“Saudi Arabia has been the greatest reformer in terms of empowering women in business, and this aligns closely with the #G20” #WEF20⁰⁰HE Eiman Al Mutairi, Assistant Minister of @SaudiMCI pic.twitter.com/5doCcyIDzn

— بدر العساكر Bader Al Asaker (@Badermasaker) January 23, 2020

“We’re very serious about the inclusiveness of the economy, and when we’re talking about the inclusiveness we're talking about gender, different age groups, etc. We want to lead by example by doing so”

2. Saudi Arabia was announced as a top performer in the World Bank’s report on Business, Women, and Law 

OPINION: Saudi Arabia is chairing #G20 in 2020 in what will be a pivotal year, where the global economy is threatened by slowing growth, rising geopolitical tensions and the threat of a global pandemic thrown in for good measure, writes @faisalfaeq https://t.co/15oZD4Zvw5 pic.twitter.com/GytPvVM3xu

— Arab News Japan (@ArabNewsjp) January 27, 2020

“The change did not happen overnight, we had to work on changing the law to actually make the change sustainable [...] If you want to make the changes sustainable, it has to be through a legislative framework, through the law itself.”
 

3. Saudi women have established 20% of the entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia

Small enterprises account for 96% of Saudi contracting establishments@SCA2030https://t.co/hRfV1vOZWx

— The Arabian Echo (@ArabianEcho) January 25, 2020

“We’re also working hard on empowering our SMEs, our startups, and building our incubators.”

4. 50% of our graduate students are females and 54% of these females are in STEM programs. There’s power for the economy that we need to build on.

#LIVE: Minister of Communications and Information Technology @aalswaha, at #Davos2020: “We have seen that once you double down on youth, women, and technology, you see positive impact” #WEF2020 (@wef)

Follow our coverage here: https://t.co/BkaCH5yGgx pic.twitter.com/xjQ6O25Mc5

— Arab News (@arabnews) January 23, 2020

“It wasn’t just about empowering women or giving them to opportunity to play and to act in the field. [...] There’s definitely a gap in the world not only in Saudi Arabia because of the changing and emerging jobs in the world, but we have to keep on re-skilling our youth and women. And, that will drive the agenda for the G20.”

Watch it here.