Riyadh, Dec 18 (IANS): Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 reform plan, tried and tested this year, has proved to be the blueprint for a post-coronavirus economy, said Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan.

In an interview with Xinhua news agency published on Thursday, al-Jadaan noted that the success of Vision 2030 over the last few years and its investment in infrastructure and digital economy were major factors in how Saudi Arabia could address the challenges of the pandemic successfully, switching seamlessly from physical to virtual.

"Vision 2030 was tried and tested this year and has proved to be the blueprint for a post-Covid-19 global economy," he said, stressing that the government will continue to invest in the giga projects to ensure a successful diversification of the Saudi economy.

As Saudi Arabia is committed to reaching the goals of Vision 2030 economic diversification plan to move away from oil dependency, the kingdom faced two major shocks this year, the raging pandemic and low oil prices.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced its budget for the fiscal year 2021, in which the Kingdom expected the economy to decline by 3.7 percent this year but to bounce to a 3.2 percent growth next year.

Speaking of the highlights of Saudi economic performance this year, the Minister told Xinhua that there had been a significant and permanent shift towards e-commerce and other digital services in the Kingdom, which "reflects the digital nature of our young and talented population."

"As I said earlier, Vision 2030 investment in digital infrastructure allowed us to maintain government, health, education and business services during the lockdown and beyond," he said.

The Minister pointed out there is significant potential with the digital economy, which remains one of the cornerstones on which the Kingdom is building a fully diversified economy.