Vision 2030 envisages forming public investment fund, boosting affordable housing and giving expats long-term residence.

Saudi Arabia’s economy has suffered over the past 12 months in line with the falling price of oil [EPA]

Saudi Arabia’s cabinet has agreed on a broad-based economic reform plan, known as Vision 2030, revealing how the oil-reliant state plans to diversify its economy over the next 14 years.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the deputy crown prince, said on Monday that the country was building up its public investment fund to become a major player in global markets.

He said Saudi Arabia was restructuring its housing ministry to increase the supply of affordable housing, and creating a “green card” system within five years to give expatriates long-term residence.

Salman al-Ansari, founder and president of the Washington DC-based Saudi American Public Relations Affairs Committee (SAPRAC), told Al Jazeera the green card system gives more rights to expatriates to invest in the country.

“Almost 10 million foreigners send their money back to their country. They can’t invest in this country, so with this green card idea we are giving more rights to expats for investment or to buy houses,” he said.

“That will create a big move for the Saudi economy. It is a visionary kind of move to not only help the Saudi economy and Saudi citizens but also to help the foreigners in the country.”

Saudi Arabia will also sell shares in state oil giant Aramco and set up the world’s largest wealth fund in line with the plan, Mohamed bin Salman said separately in an interview with the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news channel.

“We plan to sell less than 5 percent of Aramco. Aramco’s size is very big. It is estimated at between $2 trillion and $2.5 trillion,” he said.

“We plan to set up a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund … part of its assets will come from the sale of a small part of Aramco.”

Saudi Arabia’s economy has suffered over the past 12 months in line with the falling price of oil, with a $98bn budget deficit last year and an estimated deficit of $87bn this year. Its reserves decreased from $746bn in 2014 to $616bn today.

“They have announced these kind of changes before. It is going to be very interesting to monitor the implementation of the new rules,” Ahmed al-Ibrahim, an expert in Saudi affairs and security, told Al Jazeera.

“To implement some of these, you need the collaboration of society. For example, if you want to increase the empowerment of women, you need to liberalise your society,” he said.

“In so many more ways, Saudi society needs to contribute to the government for the Vision 2030 to succeed.”

The country has proven oil reserves of 267 billion barrels and potential reserves of up to 900 billion.

Interior ministry says executed ‘terrorists’ took part in attacks against residential and government buildings.

by Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia has executed 47 “terrorists”, according to the interior ministry, including Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr and al-Qaeda-affiliated Faris al-Zahrani.

In a press release read on state TV on Saturday, the ministry listed the names of all those it said were already convicted on charges of terrorism.

The death sentence of Nimr al-Nimr, who led anti-government protests in the country’s east, was confirmed by the Supreme Court in October.

Al-Zahani, once considered one of Saudi Arabia’s “most wanted terrorists”, was detained in 2004 while allegedly in possession of weapons.

Among those executed were an Egyptian citizen and a Chadian citizen, the ministry said.

It added that those convicted had participated in attacks against residential compounds and government buildings.

The announcement comes just days after Amnesty international said that Saudi Arabia executed at least 151 people in 2015, the most beheadings in 20 years.

“The Saudi Arabian authorities appear intent on continuing a bloody execution spree,” Amnesty’s report released on Monday said, quoting James Lynch, deputy director at the Middle East and North Africa programme.

It is the most people put to death in the kingdom in one year since 1995, when 192 executions were reportedly carried out.

Amnesty said the large number of executions shed further light on what the London-based human rights group referred to as unfair judicial proceedings, with a disproportionate imposition of capital punishment on foreign nationals.

“Of the 63 people executed this year for drug-related charges, the vast majority, 45 people, were foreign nationals,” the report said.

Khalid al-Dakhil, a Saudi political commentator based in Riyadh, challenged “the integrity” of Amnesty’s report, saying it failed to mention Iran’s execution record.

“Iran executes far more people a year than Saudi Arabia, but it does not get the negative publicity Saudi Arabia has. This is something that must be addressed,” Dakhil told Al Jazeera.

Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, the United States, and Iraq are the top five countries with the most executions.

At least 25 killed and more than 100 injured in blaze in Jizan, which began on floor housing ICU and maternity ward.

At least 20 brigades from the civil defence directorate were deployed to fight the blaze [Saudi Civil Defence Directorate]

At least 25 people have been killed and 107 injured in a fire at a hospital in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, authorities said.

The Saudi civil defence directorate said in a post on Facebook that the fire at the Jizan General Hospital started at about 2.30am local time.

It is not yet known what caused the blaze, which began on the first floor of the hospital.

The intensive care unit and maternity ward are both on the first floor.

Saudi Arabian authorities are on the scene investigating.

At least 20 brigades from the civil defence directorate were deployed to fight the blaze, which has now been brought under control.

Dr. Ahmad Alsum, an emergency doctor at Jizan’s King Fahd Hospital, told Al Jazeera that most of those injured in the fire were patients.

Patients were transferred to a number of other nearby public and private hospitals.

Alsum said early indications were that the blaze was an electrical fire.

“Twenty-five people died in this fire. It is very devastating,” he said.

Jizan is the capital of the Jizan region in southwest Saudi Arabia, located immediately north of the Yemen border.

إحدى وعشرون فرقة دفاع مدني وعدد من الجهات ذات العلاقة تباشر حريق مستشفى جازان العام. https://t.co/vuJpC1zUcm pic.twitter.com/MPcTlYyYTt

— الدفاع المدني (@KSA_998) December 24, 2015

Alliance includes 34 mainly Muslim states but excludes regional rival Iran as well as Iraq and Syria.

The Saudi defence minister said Muslim states needed a coordinated effort to take on ‘terror’ groups [Faisal Al Nasser/Reuters]

Saudi Arabia has formed a coalition of 34 mainly Muslim countries – including powers such as Egypt and Turkey – to coordinate a fight against “terrorist organisations”.

The alliance was announced by Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s defence minister and deputy crown prince, on Tuesday.

Arab countries such as Qatar and the UAE will join the coalition, as well as Middle Eastern, Asian, and African states, including Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Nigeria.

Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran and its allies Syria and Iraq, were excluded from the alliance despite the states sharing a common enemy in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Bin Salman said the states would work together to target  “any terrorist organisation, not just ISIL” in countries including Iraq, Syria. Libya, Egypt, and Afghanistan.

Military operations would work in accordance with local laws and in cooperation with the international community, he added.

In an earlier press statement issued by the Saudi Press Agency, officials said that the group would be led by Saudi Arabia, which would host a “joint operations centre to coordinate” efforts.

ISIL threat

Most of the countries in the coalition are currently involved in military operations against ISIL or have been targeted by the group.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have carried out air strikes against the fighters in Syria and were targeted by the group in Yemen, where they are involved in a separate war against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

In August, an ISIL suicide bomber killed 15 people, mainly special forces soldiers, at a mosque in Asir province bordering Yemen.

ISIL has also targeted Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority, killing dozens in bomb attacks on mosques.

Saudi authorities have carried out raids detaining hundreds of suspected ISIL members and sympathisers in response.