What about - Saudi Arabia?

Day 2,471, 11:50 • Published in Norway Norway • by Norwegian Consulate


In a series the Ministry of Foreign Affairs likes to present foreign nations to the Norwegian public. In our first part of this series we picked a rather special country in eRepublik - Saudi Arabia.


The flag of Saudi Arabia containing the Islamic declaration of faith "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God."

Society
Saudi Arabia has about 350 active users compared to 200 active users in Norway. This makes Saudi Arabia a rather small nation on an international scale. Economically spoken, their tax income is about the same as that of Norway and all but one region of Saudi Arabia are currently occupied by either Cyprus, Greece or Turkey.
But this is about all Norway and Saudi Arabia do have in common.



Geography
Saudi Arabia consists of 13 regions offering Grain x3, Aluminum x2, Salpeter x2, Oil x4, Limestone and Wood which naturally makes the Food production a bit more expensive than in Norway.


The skyline of Jeddah

Fiscal System
The Saudi Taxation system is different from the Norwegian system. While here in Norway work taxes are set to the minimum of 1% and the state treasury is filled with the aid of VAT, the Saudi system sets the VAT to the minimum of 1% while the work taxation is at a impressive 5%. The import taxes in Saudi Arabia are higher than in Norway, peaking at a 35% for weapons.



Political System
The political system of Saudi Arabia is unique. The game mechanics only allow a single-party system. The party of Saudi Arabia is the 'Saudi United Party'. Consequently this makes the party president a pseudo-monarch who decides everything in the country. All other elections are more or less meaningless as the result is known in advance.

Internationally seen, Saudi Arabia does not belong to any of the bigger alliance systems Asgard/Asteria/LETO or Aurora/Sirius. There are no active MPPs in Saudi Arabia and there are - at the moment - no active wars.


The tombs of Thamudi

We contacted the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia (ReMiiX)and asked a few questions about this unique country and its society.


ReMiiX, could you briefly explain the Saudi community to the Norwegian citizen?
-eSaudi Arabia its a country where there aren't so many active players. That's probably the only reason we don´t have Norwegians players, and we hence aren´t interested so much in Norway. The best relationships of eSaudi Arabia are with eGreece, eEgypt and other arabic countries. Our citizens come from all over the world. For example, our current eCP isn´t real Saudi (I prefer to not reveal his real citizenship), our vCP isn´t Saudi either. Me, personally, neither. And there are more players like this too.

I fear, for most of the Norwegian citizen Saudi Arabia is totally unknown. Could you explain the Saudi political system in a few sentences?
-eSaudi Arabia, as you say, has One-Party system due to real life issues. It was the only way for adding to eSaudi Arabia to the game. As probably you know, our eCountry is unknown for everybody in eRepublik, because we aren´t really active. Personally, we think that One-Party system is the best way for being a team, and to try to not be PTOed.

Since you do only have one party - how does the political system work? Do all citizen work together, or do you have some fights between different positions/users?
-It is easy. We choose one official player for being Party President, and all the population vote for that official candidate. Of course, there are always some more players who candidate, but they aren´t official, so we put their names in one private document that we have for our population, and they are in the black list (Which means that they won´t be able to work in the government or cabinet). For eCP its the Party President who decides, with the help of some important players from eSaudi Arabia. Everything works like a team.

Most of Saudi Arabia is occupied by Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. Are these nations enemy occupiers, or do you have renting deals similar to what Norway has with Australia at the moment?
-I´m not able to give details of everything, as you probably know, but I can tell you that we have a great relationship with eGreece. We cooperate in a perfect way, and I would like to say thanks to them, for the fantastic work they did giving us regions for getting a congress. With eTurkey we have good relations too, they are hard-working people, and they are always able to help. They are a good society. As for eCyprus, I really didn´t contact them much, but I have been there in congress and as Minister, and they are good people too in general. But I could say that eGreece and eTurkey are great countries that help us normally.

In real life we see a lot of tensions between Israel and Arab nations - especially in the Middle East - are those tensions present between Saudi Arabia and Israel in this game as well?
-I´m that kind of users that don´t mix real life with eRepublik.

What does the Saudi community know about Norway and Asgard?
-We work totally independent of the allies and other countries from eRepublik. We are members of Wolf, one alliance with no other countries, and that we could say is eDead. In general, we don´t know much about eNorway or Asgard.

What is the reception of Norway in Saudi Arabia?
-I think one of the best things from eSaudi Arabian society its that they are open to new experiences and new objetives. I think that the perception of eSaudi Arabia about eNorway is good.

Is there something you would like to add?
-I would like to say thanks for this article. Our country is open to new friendships between nations. I just hope to see you hand with hand with our country in the battles, like brothers. Hope to eNorway and eNorwegians luck, and they can count with their eSaudi brothers.

ReMiiX I would like to thank you for taking the time and answering the questions on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I hope our two nations learn more about each other in the future - and who knows - maybe one day we will indeed fight side by side on the battlefield?


noenting
Directorate of Embassies
Ministry of Foreign Affairs