The King Abdullah financial district is seen illuminated at night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 
 
 The King Abdullah financial district is seen illuminated at night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 
 
 The King Abdullah financial district is seen illuminated at night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Close 
 
 Saudi Arabia will shift its weekend to Friday and Saturday starting next week, taking the biggest Arab economy a step closer to opening its $400 billion stock market to foreign investors. 
 
 Ministries and monetary agencies will adopt the new weekend from June 29, aligning Saudi Arabia with other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, according to a royal decree yesterday. The decision was taken based on “the economic position of the kingdom and its international and regional obligations,” it said. The weekend moves from Thursday and Friday. 
 
 “Investors can read between the lines and see this as another step towards opening up the market,” Fadi Al Said, senior fund manager at ING Investment Management in Dubai, said by phone yesterday. “It’s not official, but this is one of the things Saudi needed to do to open the markets for foreign investors.” 
 
 Deutsche Bank AG and HSBC Holdings Plc are among banks that have predicted the kingdom’s stock exchange, the largest in the region with a market value bigger than those in Turkey and Ireland combined, may open to foreigners as early as next year amid rising demand for assets. Such a move may attract as much as as $30 billion of inflows, John Burbank, founder of $3.7 billion San Francisco-based hedge fund Passport Capital LLC, said in February. 
 
 Global Businesses 
 
 Non-resident foreign investors can currently only participate through share-swap transactions and exchange-traded funds. 
 
 The weekend switch “will help us in the global business world,” Mutlaq al-Morished, chief financial officer for Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), the world’s biggest petrochemicals company by market value, said in response to e-mailed questions. “We had only three days left to do business. If you add in the time zones, like with U.S., we found ourselves with limited hours to do business in the week.” 
 
 The Tadawul All-Share Index (SASEIDX) declined 0.8 percent to 7,500.69 today, trimming this year’s advance to 10 percent. That compares with a surge of 39 percent for Dubai’s index and a drop of 16 percent for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. 
 
 Morgan Stanley 
 
 Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG are among global banks have set up offices in Riyadh as a hub for brokers covering the GCC region in anticipation the market will open up. MSCI Inc., whose gauges are tracked by investors managing about $7 trillion, last year resumed Saudi coverage and said it would consider including the nation in frontier or emerging-market indexes if it allows foreigners direct access. 
 
 MSCI this month upgraded the United Arab Emirates, the second-biggest Arab economy, and Qatar to emerging-market status. The index provider’s decision “puts additional pressure on Saudi Arabia to accelerate its qualified investor program and we now believe this is likely over summer,” Emad Mostaque, a London-based strategist at Noah Capital Markets EMEA Ltd., said June 12. 
 
 “Opening up to foreigners is mostly about regulation,” Tariq Qaqish, head of asset management at Dubai-based Al Mal Capital PSC, said by phone yesterday, adding that changing regulation in the country can take years. Still, the weekend shift “is definitely a step forward,” he said. 
 
 Lost Opportunities 
 
 The changes to the working week will “lead to greater convergence with global markets,” Saudi Capital Market Chairman Mohammad Al-Sheikh, who’s based in Riyadh, said in a statement yesterday. 
 
 The kingdom has taken other steps in recent months. Al-Sheikh, a World Bank executive representing Saudi Arabia, was appointed as chairman of the CMA in February. In April the CMA announced a plan to issue credit ratings for local companies, and in May issued a resolution to adopt a stock price fluctuation limit of 10 percent for shares on their first trading day. The same month it proposed new procedures for companies with losses at or exceeding 50 percent of their capital. 
 
 The Saudi weekend switch will “put an end to negative effects and lost economic opportunities” from having different working days than regional and international institutions, the Saudi Press Agency said, citing the royal decree. Weekend changes for schools and educational institutions will start in the next academic year. 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Samuel Potter in Dubai at spotter33@bloomberg.net; Glen Carey in Riyadh at gcarey8@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net ||||| In this photo released by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Saudi Minister of Commerce and Investment Majid al-Qasabi talks to the audience at the opening of Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh,... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo released by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Saudi Minister of Commerce and Investment Majid al-Qasabi talks to the audience at the opening of Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017. Saudi Arabia has opened a major investment conference aimed at... (Associated Press) 
 
 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince on Tuesday announced plans to build a futuristic city run entirely on alternative sources of energy and said the ultraconservative kingdom must return to "moderate Islam." 
 
 The $500 billion "Neom" project , envisioned as a hub for technological innovation, will be funded by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, which the prince oversees, as well as the Saudi government and a range of private and international investors. 
 
 "This place is not for conventional people or conventional companies," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told an audience of investors from around the world gathered in the capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday. "This will be a place for the dreamers of the world." 
 
 It's the latest surprise move by Saudi Arabia, a country that for decades was characterized by slow, cautious reforms, bureaucratic red tape and promises that fell short of target. The kingdom was forced to spring into action nearly three years ago after global energy prices fell by more than half, threatening to deplete Saudi foreign reserves and spending power by 2020. 
 
 Now, the kingdom is on a mission to build the world's largest sovereign wealth fund to invest in projects like Neom. The aim is diversify revenue away from oil exports and create more jobs under a plan spearheaded by the crown prince known as Vision 2030 . 
 
 No reform, however, was more disruptive to the old order than last month's decision to lift the ban on women driving next summer. Saudi Arabia is also expected to bring back cinemas soon as it opens the ultraconservative country to more entertainment. 
 
 Prince Mohammed defended these reforms at the conference on Tuesday, saying "we were not like this in the past." 
 
 "We want to go back to what we were: Moderate Islam," the prince said during his rare public appearance. The heir to the throne said the kingdom will work to defeat extremist ideas and ensure that young Saudis live in harmony with the rest of the world. 
 
 He was speaking on a panel that included business titans Stephen Schwarzman of U.S. private equity firm Blackstone and Masayoshi Son of Japan's technology conglomerate SoftBank. 
 
 As panelist after panelist lavished praise on the 32-year-old prince for his "passion," ''vision" and "enthusiasm," he interjected, saying: "I'm one of 20 million people. I am nothing without them." 
 
 For many middle and lower-income Saudi families, the prince's reform blueprint is long overdue. 
 
 Most Saudis hold jobs with the government, where wages for many can average just a few hundred dollars a month. Still, the public sector wage bill eats up about half of the government's total expenditure. As part of Vision 2030, the government plans to trim the public sector workforce by about 20 percent while ensuring there are enough jobs in the private sector to keep up with demand. 
 
 Over the next decade, an estimated 5 million young Saudis will enter the workforce, creating an urgent need for rapid job creation. 
 
 Projects like Neom are focused on creating some of those jobs. The independent economic zone in the northwestern region of the country, near Egypt and Jordan, sits on 26,500 square kilometers (10,230 square miles) of untouched land along the Red Sea. 
 
 The crown prince envisions it as a hub for innovation, where scientists would develop new technologies and investors would make healthy returns. It's a place, he said, where drones, driverless cars and robotics might all work together to ensure there's no traffic, for example. 
 
 Prince Mohammed chose to unveil the project at the Future Investment Initiative conference being organized by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. 
 
 The kingdom plans to transform the fund into the world's largest by listing less than 5 percent of state-owned oil giant Aramco on the Saudi stock exchange and an international exchange, and transferring ownership of Aramco to the Public Investment Fund, also known as PIF. 
 
 Saudi Arabia says this could put some $2 trillion under PIF's control— double that of Norway's sovereign wealth fund, which is currently the world's largest. 
 
 Speaking to Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the conference, PIF Managing Director Yasir al-Rumayyan said the fund currently manages about $230 billion in assets. 
 
 Recently, reports emerged that Saudi Arabia was considering holding off on the international portion of the Aramco IPO in favor of a private offering from a key investor like China. Saudi officials, however, insist Aramco is on track for listings as early as next year. 
 
 Al-Rumayyan, who is also on the board of Aramco, addressed those concerns at the forum in Riyadh, saying: "Everything is on track, 2018 is our target." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. ||||| FILE- In this Nov. 11, 2015 file photo, Saudi Arabian Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a summit of Arab and Latin American leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's King Salman has... (Associated Press) 
 
 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — He is known as MBS and his rise through Saudi Arabia's corridors of power has been shockingly swift. 
 
 At age 31, Mohammed bin Salman already controlled the kingdom's defense policy and was overseeing a massive internal economic overhaul with the backing of his father, King Salman. His sudden appointment Wednesday to the position of crown prince places him as first in line to the throne, cementing his position as the driving force behind Saudi Arabia's major moves and seemingly charting Saudi policy for the coming decades. He is regarded as a bold and ambitious risk taker. 
 
 Even before the royal decree was issued by the king, MBS's plans have resulted in a dramatic shake up of a once predictable and slow-moving country that for decades lagged behind its Gulf Arab neighbors, like Dubai with its glistening skyscrapers and tourist attractions. 
 
 In the two-and-a-half years since his father was crowned king, MBS has managed to sweep aside any competition from princes who are older and more experienced than him, most notably his cousin Prince Mohammed bin Nayef who had been in line to inherit the throne. 
 
 Khaled Batarfi, a Saudi columnist and professor at King Faisal University, is among those who support MBS' ascension. 
 
 "The current situation requires a lot of effort and quick decision-making and courage," he said. "The past generation may not be as quick rhythmically or have the speed that's needed to carry out a transformation." 
 
 "The country needs new blood and a new generation because the changes needed are big," Batarfi said. 
 
 A snapshot of the crown prince's many titles reveals just how vast his portfolio is. He is also defense minister; deputy prime minister; chair of the Supreme Economic Council; head of a council overseeing the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco; head of the Public Investment Fund; and a top member of the Council of Political and Security Affairs. 
 
 A little more than two years ago, MBS was a little-known figure in Saudi Arabia. 
 
 He served as the head of his father's royal court when Salman was still crown prince. Unlike his many siblings, he never studied abroad or pursued a master's degree, choosing instead to remain close to his father and study law at the King Saud University in Riyadh. 
 
 Within hours of Salman's ascension to the throne, the monarch named his favorite son, MBS, defense minister. Two months later, they led Saudi forces into war in Yemen, becoming the face of a conflict framed in Saudi media as a battle against Shiite-led Iran's ambitions for regional dominance. The war whipped up nationalist fervor around the new king and his son. He would also be in charge of inking multi-billion dollar arms deals with Washington. 
 
 Domestically, MBS expanded his reach by turning to outside consulting firms to launch a plan to overhaul the kingdom's economy. His goal is to drastically reduce the country's dependence on oil exports after a plunge in prices nearly crippled Saudi Arabia's ability to spend on national projects and foreign efforts. 
 
 MBS vowed to end Saudi Arabia's "addiction" to oil, and pushed through politically-sensitive austerity measures that curbed spending on subsidies and the public sector — where the majority of Saudis are employed. 
 
 His Vision 2030 plan and its accompanying National Transformation Plan grabbed international headlines when he announced the country would publicly list a percentage of Saudi Aramco. 
 
 Social reforms, he's argued, are also needed in order to bring the deeply conservative nation into the 21st Century. MBS has promised amusement parks and more fun for his generation of millennials. For the first time in decades, Saudis can attend musical concerts in the kingdom and the powers of country's feared religious police have been curbed. 
 
 More than half of the population of Saudi Arabia is under 25-years-old and 70 percent are under 35, representing a large potential consumer market, but also a massive challenge for the government to keep up with job creation and affordable housing. The Vision 2030 plan outlines specific goals, such as reducing the unemployment rate from around 12 percent to 7 percent. 
 
 And unlike previous Saudi royals in top positions of power, MBS has granted several interviews to Western media outlets. 
 
 In his most recent television interview, aired in May on Saudi TV, MBS delivered a strong warning to Iran and ruled out any dialogue with officials there. Framing the tensions with Iran in sectarian terms, he said it is Iran's goal "to control the Islamic world" and to spread its Shiite doctrine 
 
 "We know we are a main target of Iran," Prince Mohammed said, warning that he "will work so that it becomes a battle for them in Iran and not in Saudi Arabia." 
 
 Madawi Al-Rasheed, an outspoken Saudi critic of the royal family and a professor at the London School of Economics, said MBS' stature as crown prince will mean "continuing repression of the domestic population and being erratic regionally." 
 
 She said it also further aligns Riyadh with Washington. King Salman dispatched MBS to Washington in March to meet President Donald Trump, a visit that helped lay the groundwork for Trump's historic first overseas visit to Saudi Arabia last month. 
 
 Al-Rasheed said MBS has effectively ingratiated himself with the new U.S. administration by presenting himself as "a younger version of Trump" by blurring the lines between statesman and businessman. 
 
 Iran's state TV described the appointment of MBS as a "soft coup in Saudi Arabia". The bitter rivals also back opposite sides of the war in Syria and opposing groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain. 
 
 Though few of Saud Arabia's allies have publicly critiqued MBS, a German intelligence analysis released by the BND spy agency has cited concern over the kingdom's future, noting that the cautious diplomatic stance of older leaders within the royal family has been replaced by "a new impulsive policy of intervention." 
 
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 Aya Batrawy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ayaelb
– A notable change for working Saudi Arabians: The weekend will now come a day later. Its people had enjoyed a Thursday-Friday weekend, but Oman's recent switch to Friday-Saturday made Saudi Arabia the odd man out among the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. The change to a Friday weekend start, described by Reuters as a "surprise," is effective this week, per an order issued yesterday by King Abdullah. Businesses are pleased: "It will increase interface with the rest of the world," says a former oil exec, and a Riyadh-based strategist notes that the move puts an end to "having just three working days aligned with the rest of the world." Bloomberg sees something more behind the shift: the Saudi stock market. "It’s not official, but this is one of the things [Saudi Arabia] needed to do to open the markets for foreign investors," says a Dubai fund manager. Bloomberg reports that Deutsche Bank and HSBC have previously predicted that foreign investors could be given direct access to the country's $400 billion stock market as early as 2014.