Saudi Arabia’s Minister for Communications and Information Technology has outlined the Kingdom’s digital vision as part of the country’s participation at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
In a panel, entitled ‘Country Strategy Dialogue on Saudi Arabia’, Abdullah Alswaha, Minister for ICT, Saudi Arabia, along with fellow ministers, shared insights into the digitisation strategies of the Kingdom.
“We have gone a long way in delivering on Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030,” said Alswaha. “Starting with the strategic pillars of the vision, the first one being that we are at the heart of the Muslim world.”
Alswaha also noted that the Kingdom is currently both the largest economy and the largest technology market in the region. “We are open for business, inviting partners to join hands with us on this exciting journey and use the Kingdom as a destination to trial innovative new ideas.”
Vision 2030 is a government initiative led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and centres on three main themes to build a “a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation.”
A key part of the vision is to increase private investment and the growth of the private sector, which Saudi Arabia hopes will contribute 65 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
According to Alswaha, as the Kingdom continues its development projects it is getting closer to its goal of being a global investment powerhouse. As part of this, he said that the government is spending more than $3 billion to connect 2 million homes, schools and hospitals with high speed fiber as it prepares to roll out a 5G network.
“These projects will make sure we build the digital future of the nation,” he said.
In October last year, the Kingdom announced its mega-city project NEOM, which will be integrated with various Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and will be targeted at attracting new foreign direct investment that will contribute to PIF’s long-term growth strategy aimed at strengthening the Saudi Arabian economy.
“As we aspire to be the interconnection between three continents, we are establishing the hub for innovation, knowledge and technology transfer through NEOM, a city likely to have a population of more robots than people.”
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos is running until 26th January.
