Preface
On the planet we live on, there are many countries, some of which are bordered by land on all sides, and some of which are surrounded by the sea, including Japan and Australia, which we are familiar with.
However, there is such a country in the world, because the neighboring country spent a lot of money to build a canal, and gradually transformed itself from a land country to an island country, this country is Qatar, which is really the world's biggest.
Saudi Arabia digs canals
Everyone must have heard of Saudi Arabia, and when it comes to this country, the first impression is definitely the image of rich, oil-ridden, and nouveau riche.
However, at the beginning, Saudi Arabia was not as rich as it is now, and before the discovery of oil, the environment in which they lived could be described as a place where birds did not, and the entire land area was almost a large desert, which made the living conditions of the local residents extremely difficult.
Perhaps this kind of living environment can't even be seen by God, so it gave the local residents an important treasure, that is, oil. As one of the most important energy sources in the world, oil plays a crucial role in many fields, so it is very expensive.
With Saudi Arabia extracting a lot of oil underground, this desert country in the Middle East has become one of the world's most famous oil powers.
However, oil can solve the country's economic problems, but the climate and environment are difficult to solve with money, so Saudi Arabia is once again in trouble.
Friends who have studied geography know that the most lacking thing in the desert area is water resources, and water resources are precisely the most important resources for human survival, if this problem is not solved, it will seriously affect the living environment of the country's residents.
At first, Saudi Arabia bought water directly from abroad, after all, the money spent on water was only a drop in the bucket from the money they made from exporting oil.
They didn't care much about the expense, but over time they found that this method could indeed solve the needs of the moment, but their children and grandchildren could not use this method all the time, after all, no matter how much oil they had, they would always finish digging one day.
Therefore, they came up with a clever idea, which was to build their own canal, and this idea was instantly supported by many people, so they immediately prepared to take action.
Finally, in June 2018, Saudi Arabia began bidding for the project, naming the Grand Canal the Salwa Canal, with a deadline of June 25 of the same year, and the final result of the bid will be announced within three months.
Source: Huanqiu.com, June 23, 2018 – Saudi Arabia wants to dig a canal to isolate Qatar as an island?
Qatar has been a victim
And when this news spread, it could not help but cause controversy in other countries: why should other countries oppose the construction of the project in their own country? This is of course closely related to the geographical location of the Grand Canal.
From the map, we can clearly see the geographical location of Saudi Arabia and its neighbors, with Qatar next to another country to the east.
Saudi Arabia's Salva Canal is ready to be built on the border with Qatar, so that once the project is completed, Qatar will fall from a land country to an island nation.
This is undoubtedly a huge disaster for the Qatari state, and may even seriously affect the economic income of the Qatari state, which poses a huge threat to the future development of Qatar.
After all, Qatar, which is also a Middle Eastern country, also needs to export oil in exchange for the country's financial revenue, and the export is more of a sea transportation, so the Salva Canal will seriously affect Qatar's transportation conditions, so it will arouse Qatar's strong condemnation.
In Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, the construction of the Salva Canal can be said to be beneficial to the country and the people, and they built the canal for two main purposes: one is to build a number of tourist resorts near the canal and provide more efficient conditions for their own domestic trade, and the other is to build a new military base and nuclear waste landfill facilities.
It can be said that the construction of the Salva Canal is completely beneficial to Saudi Arabia, and the tourists attracted by the tourist resort it has established can drive the economic development of the country's tourism industry, and the Salka Canal can also provide enough convenience for its own trade activities, which is a multi-win project.
The outcome has been mixed, as can be seen in the reactions of Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the canal.
Source of the above content: Beijing News, June 25, 2018 - Digging a canal around Qatar, Saudi Arabia wants to completely blockade Qatar? Beijing News column
Saudi Arabia diversifies its economy
At a time when everyone thought that Saudi Arabia could only rely on oil to support its domestic income, it has begun to diversify its economy away from relying solely on oil as the country's main harvest.
Gradually, they began to focus on infrastructure construction and foreign investment, relying on the platform they provided, and began to attract foreign investors to join, which greatly promoted the development of private enterprises in the country and greatly increased the country's income.
Not only that, they have also built many heritage projects, giving tourists more options to play, so as to attract tourists from all over the world to travel here, and greatly improve their tourism economy.
Not only that, Saudi Arabia has also planned a number of special economic zones and issued some convenient policies to attract people from all over the world to invest and provide employment opportunities for many people.
It is worth mentioning that China is Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner, and the two countries have cooperated in many aspects to achieve a win-win situation.
In the 2023 economic revenue data released by the relevant departments of Saudi Arabia, the non-oil economy accounts for more than 50% of the country's total income, which shows that Saudi Arabia has gradually begun to escape the fate of being controlled by oil.
Source: Huanqiu.com, April 10, 2024 - Non-oil economy will account for more than 50% of total economic output in 2023 Saudi Arabia Promotes Economic Diversification (International Perspective)
epilogue
The construction of the Grand Canal in Sarqa is undoubtedly an excellent project for Saudi Arabia, but on the other hand, Karta has become unlucky, and I hope that the two countries will not have a huge conflict because of this, and everything is valued for peace. At the same time, I also wish the cooperation between the mainland and Saudi Arabia will be long and the two sides will make progress together.