The Riyadh Economic Forum 2026 concluded its twelfth edition in the Saudi capital with the announcement of 33 strategic recommendations aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of the national economy and raising the efficiency of its ecosystem, according to the forum's closing statement. The sessions were held under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and brought together economists, academics, and representatives of both the public and private sectors alongside specialists in development affairs.
The recommendations rest on five in-depth studies that addressed knowledge transfer, the assessment of legislative impact, traffic congestion, the hosting of global events, and smart agriculture. On knowledge transfer, the forum called for a unified national framework to govern the localization of knowledge and measure its impact, alongside re-engineering major contracts, investments, and projects so that they embed knowledge-based tasks and capabilities, in addition to linking universities and applied research with production challenges and advancing institutional knowledge management and its digital repositories.
On measuring the impact of legislation and public policies, the recommendations included establishing an independent national center to assess the effects of laws and policies before and after implementation under high-level national oversight, adopting a model that combines sectoral evaluation with independent central review, and creating a national impact data bank linked to government databases. The forum also proposed a unified national indicators framework and a measurement dashboard to track economic, social, environmental, and regulatory effects, supported by big data and artificial intelligence, and called for a sustainable system to qualify specialists through competency frameworks, career paths, training, and accreditation.
Regarding traffic congestion in major Saudi cities, the recommendations urged the establishment of a general authority for traffic, governance of the sector and a national data ecosystem, and the application of integrated traffic and smart mobility management, alongside managing mobility demand gradually, redistributing peak hours, and strengthening public transport, sustainable mobility, and last-mile solutions. On maximizing the returns of hosting Expo 2030 and the 2034 World Cup, the forum recommended increasing the economic value retained locally by identifying substitution opportunities, developing suppliers, and directing procurement toward priority groups, while providing flexible accommodation capacity, raising operational readiness, and linking skills development to actual job demand. The fifth study focused on smart agriculture, calling for a national program for the transition to smart farming, an integrated agricultural data ecosystem with digital infrastructure and early warning, a national program to improve irrigation efficiency and water productivity, and the growth of a competitive national industry for smart agricultural technologies and services.