As usual wikipedia is my friend.
Prince bin Salman has successfully lobbied for regulations restricting the powers of the religious police.[16] Prince bin Salman established an entertainment authority that has hosted comedy shows, pro wrestling events, and monster truck rallies.[16] In an interview with al Arabiya he also shared his idea for "Green cards" for non-Saudi foreigners.[72]
In February 2017, Saudi Arabia appointed its first woman to head the Saudi Stock Exchange.[73][74]
In April 2017, bin Salman announced a project to build one of the world’s largest cultural, sports and entertainment cities in Al Qidiya, southwest of Riyadh. The 334 square kilometre city will include a safari and a Six Flags theme park.[75][76]
As of February 2018, Saudi women can now open their own business, without a male's permission.[77]
According to the Saudi Information Ministry, mothers in Saudi Arabia can now retain immediate custody of their children after divorce without having to file any lawsuits.[78]
Further cultural developments followed in December that year with the Saudi Arabia’s first public concert by a female singer, and in January 2018 a sports stadium in Jeddah became the first in the Kingdom to admit women.[18][79] In the same month it was announced that Saudi Arabia would reopen public cinemas after a ban of 35 years, with plans to have more than 2,000 screens running by 2030.[80]
The first measures undertaken in April 2016 included new taxes and cuts in subsidies, a diversification plan, the creation of a $2 trillion Saudi sovereign wealth fund, and a series of strategic economic reforms called the National Transformation Programme.[81] Prince bin Salman plans to raise capital for the sovereign wealth fund by selling off shares of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned petroleum and natural gas company,[64] with the capital to be re-invested in other sectors such as to implement the diversification plans.[82] However, as of October 2017, the plan for Aramco’s IPO listing has been labeled "a mess" by The Economist.[83]
Prince Mohammad bin Salman slashed the state budget, freezing government contracts and reducing the pay of civil employees as part of drastic austerity measures.[84][49]
Prince Mohammad is seen as the figure behind the removal of the ban on female drivers in September 2017.[17] He has also chipped away at Saudi Arabia’s Wali system.[85]
In October 2017, he said the ultra-conservative Saudi state had been "not normal" for the past 30 years, blaming rigid doctrines that have governed society in a reaction to the Iranian Revolution, which successive leaders "didn’t know how to deal with".[86] According to him, Saudi Arabia is "returning to what we were before—a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world".[87] In essence, he was telling the country's clerics that the deal the royal family struck with them after the 1979 siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca is being renegotiated.[88] Building an industrial culture was not compatible with Wahhabism. The Wahhabis were committed to fixed social and gender relationships. These were consistent with an economy built on oil sales, but industrialization requires a dynamic culture with social relations constantly shifting.[89]
According to Politico, MbS wants to pre-empt a repetition of the downfall of the earlier Saudi states due to familial infighting, internal malaise, external frailty and failure to modernize. Mindful of this history, instead of waiting for today’s Saudi state to weaken and fall, MBS is trying to save the country before it collapses.[90]
Ayaan Hirsi Ali claims that "if M.B.S. succeeds in his modernization efforts, Saudis will benefit from new opportunities and freedoms, and the world will benefit from curtailing the Wahhabi radicalization agenda. A decade from now, the kingdom could look more like the United Arab Emirates, its prosperous and relatively forward-looking neighbor."[91]
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