The complexity of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reform programme is matched only by its scale. Nearly every element of the country’s social and economic fabric is being revised to meet the objectives laid out under the programme. As public sector agencies drive their respective reform briefs forward, some are having more success than others. This is to be expected when it comes to structural economic change but it has given the Vision 2030 agenda an alpine quality, characterised by the peaks and troughs of reform and stagnation.
Sitting atop one of the highest peaks is Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority (CMA), which has emerged, in many ways, as a standard bearer for the globally integrated economic model that the government is pursuing. Led by chairman Mohammed El-Kuwaiz, the CMA has earned plaudits both inside and outside Saudi Arabia for setting out a clear reform vision and executing real change. Indeed, over the past year, the pace of this reform has picked up considerably.
