From Policy to Product: How Saudi Arabia Is Turning Culture Into Capital

A Unified Vision for a Culture-Driven Economy

Saudi Arabia is entering a new chapter of economic transformation - one where culture is no longer viewed as a soft power instrument but as a strategic economic engine.

At the Cultural Investment Conference in Riyadh, held under the patronage of HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Ministry of Culture announced a major milestone: the forthcoming Guide for Importing and Exporting Cultural Products and Services.

This initiative marks a crucial step in enabling structured trade of cultural goods, signaling that the cultural and creative economy has matured into a sector with measurable export potential. The guide will provide a knowledge-based framework for cultural practitioners, entrepreneurs, and investors - outlining pathways, partners, and mechanisms that bridge creativity and commerce.

By transforming culture into a codified, investable domain, the Ministry of Culture reinforces the central thesis of Vision 2030: culture is economy, and its growth can be strategically designed, measured, and scaled.

From Vision to Systemic Design

Saudi Arabia's cultural economy is already demonstrating measurable momentum. In 2023, it contributed SAR 35 billion to the non-oil GDP - 1.49% of national output - and grew by over 10% year on year. By 2030, it is expected to surpass SAR 180 billion, supported by cultural infrastructure projects, festivals, and the rising integration of creative industries with technology, tourism, and education.

The Ministry's new guide addresses the next barrier: systemic scalability. It answers three critical needs that have historically limited global competitiveness in cultural sectors:

1. Information asymmetry - lack of accessible data, trade frameworks, and procedural guidance.


2. Fragmented value chains - weak integration between creation, financing, and export.


3. Underdeveloped PPP mechanisms - insufficient collaboration between public ambition and private execution.

By bridging these gaps, the guide becomes a structural enabler - aligning cultural ambition with economic architecture.

Toada's Role: Translating Policy into Market Impact

Where public policy sets the direction, Toada Consulting designs the mechanisms that turn direction into traction. At the Cultural Investment Conference, Toada - in collaboration with Mung Investments, the Cultural Partner of the event - advanced a private-sector perspective: how commercialization frameworks can transform cultural potential into measurable economic returns.

Toada's position is rooted in a simple but profound premise: culture is infrastructure.

It underpins industries, powers soft diplomacy, and enhances national competitiveness. The challenge, therefore, is not creativity - it's conversion: the ability to design systems where ideas become assets, and assets generate sustainable value.

Through its Strategize–Design–Perform framework, Toada develops data-backed ecosystems that align cultural identity with investment logic. This involves defining monetization models for cultural IP, structuring PPPs that de-risk creative projects, and introducing metrics that measure cultural impact with the same precision as financial performance.

From Gastronomy to Global IP: A Proof of Concept

Toada's philosophy was put into practice through the launch of its first cultural product at Sirha Arabia 2025 - A Whole Story in One Bite. Developed with acclaimed Saudi chef Rakan AlOraifi, the project demonstrates how local heritage can be productized into a scalable, exportable experience.

Each dish encapsulates a region of Saudi Arabia - not only through flavor but through narrative, design, and sustainable presentation. In this model, gastronomy functions as cultural diplomacy, where identity becomes consumable, story-driven, and economically viable.

This launch represents a culinary initiative. It is a proof of concept for a broader market: how cultural production, when systematized, can evolve into a revenue-generating creative IP portfolio - a domain once dominated by entertainment and design, now expanding to include experiential heritage.

The Cultural Economy's Next Frontier: Commercialization Ecosystems

The intersection of policy and product defines the maturity of any creative economy. Saudi Arabia is now building what can be described as a commercialization ecosystem for culture - a system that integrates regulation, financing, and innovation. Three dynamics are central to this next phase:

1. Policy as Enabler, Not Controller The state defines the rules, but flexibility lies with the market. The new guide provides structure without limiting innovation - enabling creativity to scale responsibly.


2. Private Sector as Accelerator Institutional investors and corporate partners are moving into culture-driven ventures, treating creative IP, immersive experiences, and design exports as new asset classes.


3. Measurement as Legitimization Data - on participation, impact, and returns - legitimizes culture as a quantifiable sector, making it visible to global capital and credible to policymakers.

Together, these elements form the backbone of the Saudi cultural commercialization framework: one that balances creative authenticity with financial viability, heritage with innovation, and local value with global reach.

From Frameworks to Futures

For Toada, the Cultural Investment Conference was a signal - that Saudi Arabia is ready to move from cultural investment to cultural performance. The Ministry's guide sets the policy foundation; Toada's market initiatives bring it to life.

By combining analytical precision with cultural insight, Toada acts as both strategic advisor and creative producer, bridging government ambitions with private-sector delivery. Its readiness for Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) and impact-based collaborations positions it as a key enabler of the next evolution: a future where culture operates as a measurable, exportable, and self-sustaining economic system.

The Saudi Advantage: Authenticity Meets System

Globally, creative economies are often fragmented - strong in artistry, weak in structure. Saudi Arabia's advantage lies in its ability to design both.

Its cultural identity is rich, young, and diverse; its economic model is systemic, data-driven, and ambitious. The combination creates an unparalleled opportunity to lead a new global paradigm - where authentic culture, when organized through strategic design, becomes a renewable source of economic power.

Toada stands at the center of this intersection - building the bridges between policy and product, inspiration and infrastructure, creativity and capital.