Report: Saudi Arabian Homeland Security Market Expected To Be $115 Billion In The Coming Decade
Threatened at home by a massive Al Qaeda infiltration at all levels of society, and intimidated by neighboring ascending Iran with its fundamentalist Shia push, Saudi Arabia’s rulers embark on a multi-tier homeland security project to protect themselves and their oil infrastructure, creating a market of more than $115 billion in the coming decade.
This prediction is part of a new market research report published recently by Homeland Security Research Corp. (HSRC), titled: “Saudi Arabia Homeland Security Market -- 2009-2018.”
Oil and policy experts around the world are unanimous in their opinion that a significant damage to Saudi Arabia’s oil exporting facilities or a major regime changing event in the kingdom might precipitate a debilitating economic crisis, possibly plunging the world’s economy into a deep recession, caused by a sharp increase in energy prices.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where a vast majority of its homeland security components report directly to the royal court, and not to the ministries of Defense, Security or Interior. In the 1950s, the Kingdom dedicated about 30 percent of its GDP to protecting itself. Currently, the allocation for HLS is about 5 percent, a modest expenditure by comparison.
Over the coming decade, Saudi Arabia’s homeland security market is forecasted to be the largest after that of the United States. The Kingdom boasts 24 separate agencies and organizations, arranged in a three-tier structure, employing more than 250,000 personnel (a number that is expected to grow by an additional 35,000 over the forecast period).
In several sectors, the Saudi homeland security market is forecasted to be even larger than that of America’s. For example, HSRC forecasts that the Kingdom will spend more than the United States on fortifying its borders with Iraq and Yemen (as opposed to the U.S’s expenditure on similar efforts along the Mexican and Canadian borders).