Saudi ICT strategy to contribute SAR 50 bln to GDP in 5 years: minister

The strategic goals of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Strategy, approved by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, include increasing the sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) by SAR 50 billion over the coming five years, Saudi Press Agency reported, citing Abdullah Al-Swaha, Minister of Information and Communications Technology.

“The ICT strategy 2019-23, which will draw a roadmap for the future in innovation and digital economy, also aims at achieving 50 percent growth of the IT sector and raising the Saudi workforce to 50 percent by 2023,” Al-Swaha said.

“It also aims to attract foreign investments and support empowerment and more participation of women in the ICT sector,” he added.

According to Al-Swaha, the strategy’s vision is to empower the Kingdom to be a global leader in ICT by improving and advancing all development activities, and maximizing the effectiveness and performance of the public and private sectors by enabling digital transformation.

“This serves individuals and communities, meeting the national requirements and keeping pace with global developments to attract more foreign technology investments, and thus creating a roadmap for the future in innovation and digital economy,” he said.

The minister said the strategy includes an ambitious action plan to attract leading international companies in the priority areas of emerging technologies; increase the share of local content in the IT sector; improve the technical skills of the relevant local workforce; and enhance technical and digital knowledge.

It also aims to drive technical innovation through the promotion of research and development in the Kingdom’s startup ecosystem; enable the development of mega projects; as well as to support coordination and synergy between the relevant ICT entities in the public and private sectors.

“The strategy is part of the ministry’s efforts to establish a robust digital architecture so that digital transformation accelerates, thus supporting the orientations of the Vision 2030, which aims to promote the ICT sector’s role in order to build a digital society, a digital government, a thriving digital economy, and an innovative future for the Kingdom,” he said.

Al-Swaha identified e-commerce, digital education, digital health, industry 4.0, smart cities, national data and e-government as the major beneficiary sectors of the ICT strategy.

“There will be 13 priorities for the strategy in-line with the goals of Vision 2030 and the strategy will be linked with eight programs to realize the vision in a direct way,” he concluded.