Return to normalcy

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman, has introduced reforms including allowing concerts, reopening cinemas and lifting a ban on women driving as part of a modernisation drive. On Thursday hundreds of Saudi citizens and residents gathered for the first concert in the capital since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to watch performances by Syrian diva Assala Nasri and Kuwaiti crooner Nabeel Shuail (“Saudi holds first concert since pandemic,” Gulf Today, June 5).

All these efforts are to develop the tourism and leisure sector that is one of the foundations of his Vision 2030 plan to prepare the Arab world’s largest economy for the post-oil era.

Talha Bin Saif — By email