摘要
The sharp rise in oil price is bringing a huge increase in the resources which the government of Saudi Arabia can spend on development.The government has responded by creating highly ambitious new development plans,with a vision of turning the country into a global industrial power by 2024.This article looks first at the historical record of oil booms in Saudi Arabia,focusing in particular on what happened in the first oil boom(1973-82).While the latter boom did see substantial development in specified fields,it failed to lead on to sustainable non-oil development.The article contends that there is reason to believe that the new developmental vision is well-grounded in reality.This is mainly because Saudi Arabia’s accession to the WTO will give Saudi petrochemicals better access to world markets.Due to the character of the labor market,however,Saudi Arabia’s emergence as a global industrial power(based on petrochemicals)will not resolve some of the country’s most pressing social problems.