Back then, the Kingdom was improving on industries in which it had a proven record.

in the Middle East through its Tadawul share listing.

It is in the process of reaffirming its roots in the oil business via the $70 billion merger with Aramco, regarded as a vital part of both the latter’s global market listing plans and the Vision 2030 strategy to further reduce oil dependency.

The other crucial element to 1970s economic policy was the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, which was set up in 1975 and was the first government body to look to plan a national industrial economy.

In the 1970s, the Eastern Province was separated from the Hijaz by roadless tracts of inhospitable desert, linked by Bedouin trails but little else.

The commission — which is still in business as an economic and industrial planning and investment authority — linked the two parts of the Kingdom, at first with oil pipelines that today are strategically crucial to the Saudi economy, then by a modern road system. In the process, the commission created two big industrial maritime hubs out of what had formerly been sleepy fishing ports on the Arabian Gulf and the Red

Sea: Jubail and Yanbu.

Both are now crucial parts of the Kingdom’s modern economy, and key to the recently announced National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, which aims to pull in hundreds of billions of dollars of investment to the Kingdom — another vital component of Vision 2030.

An early priority for the commission when it was set up nearly half a century ago was to stop the practice of “flaring” at oil wells (burning off the gas produced during oil production, deemed then to be uneconomic to exploit commercially). Now, Saudi Arabia has a large and growing gas industry, which it is using to reduce the amount of oil used in domestic power production and, eventually, for large-scale export.

The commission’s projects were an example of another feature of Saudi economic and industrial policy:

The need to attract international investment and participation in the Kingdom’s plans.

The American contractor Bechtel Corp., which played a big role in Aramco’s early development, was a major participant in the 1970s projects.

“Yanbu and Jubail were especially successful because they were built around an oil industry that was already strong,” said Wald.

“They had secured international companies’ participation in advance, mostly through joint ventures with Aramco, and they had strong and efficient management from the US and Saudi Arabia.”

Although the echoes of 1970s economic and industrial policy are strong in the Vision 2030 strategy, Wald warns against a direct comparison, mainly because of the scale and transformational nature of current plans.

“Some of the government-supported projects of that decade, especially Jubail and Yanbu, became very successful. But it’s not a simple, natural progression between then and now,” she said.

“Back then, Saudi Arabia was improving on industries in which it had an established and proven track record. Vision 2030 is trying to develop entirely new areas.”