Tech spending by MEA smart cities to reach $3 bln by 2022: KPMG

Annual technology spending by smart cities in the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region is expected to double from $1.3 billion to $2.7 billion in the next four years, according to consultancy firm KPMG.

Saudi Arabia said that Riyadh and Dubai are the top spenders when it comes to the development of smart cities, it added.

"Given the Saudi government's move to embrace digital transformation in alignment with Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program 2020, information technology (IT) spending in the Kingdom is slated to grow by at least 14 percent each year," said Dr Samer Abdallah, Head of Digital, KPMG Al Fozan & Partners.

Global smart city spending is set to accelerate from $81 billion in 2018 to $158 billion by 2022, he said, citing data from International Data Corporation.

In addition, Dr Abdallah said: “As Saudi Arabia makes great strides to build a sophisticated digital infrastructure under its Vision 2030, cloud computing will be a catalyst for digital transformation.”

Cloud computing will play a key role in promoting Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) as these technologies are adopted across the broader business spectrum, he noted.