Recent Developments in Saudi Arabia's IT Sector

Recent Developments in Saudi Arabia’s IT Sector

Saudi Arabia is deemed to have over 27 million consumers and a fair number of global enterprises, which makes it one of the largest markets for Information and Technology in the Middle East.

With the recent Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 being chalked out, the country is more keen on reducing the dependency on oil, and increase its investment prospects in other industries, the most promising of them being Information and Technology.

One reason why the Kingdom sees a thriving future in this sector is because of its populace. A major section of Arabic society is young and growing rapidly, which is the reason why its consumer market too is tilted towards technologically-literate early adopters.

Here is an overview of some of the most interesting programs introduced by the Saudi Arabian Government, that promise to stimulate a thriving economy.

IT & Saudi – What’s Happening?

The Concept of e-Governance

As per the 2030 vision, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia aims to master the e-governance skills. The plan is to expand the online services, and improve the standard of governance.

By digitizing the work, the Government is working towards boosting transparency and also reducing the number of delays.

The vision also increases the scope of online development. As per latest news, the Government plans to expand the online portal further and include areas such as health care, education, and geographic information.

IT for SMEs

The reason why SMEs have been lagging is because of the unnecessarily slow and complex legal procedures that they have to follow. Apart from that, these small and medium scale companies struggle because of lack of skilled workforce and funding, another striking reason for the low contribution.

To address these issues, the Government has put together SME Authority plans to review and revise the laws and regulations, and facilitate access to funding for these sectors.

As per the plan the Government will also establish new business incubators, specialised institutions for IT training to help SME entrepreneurs in upskilling themselves, and will also be leveraging e-commerce to support this division.

Development in the Retail Sector

The Kingdom’s 2030 vision has also identified that the traditional retail sector dominates of the market.

It therefore becomes crucial to help and uplift the retail business. The Saudi Government therefore, aims to increase the e-commerce contribution by 2030.

The Government is planning to achieve this goal of growth by attracting both regional and international retail investors, increasing the financing of the small retail sectors, and ease the restrictions on foreign investment and ownership laws, to help retail thrive in the Kingdom.

Conclusion

With a vision such as 2030 in place, tremendous opportunities pop-up for IT in the Kingdom. It also opens up the prospects of Government entities working with private stakeholders to improve the business environment.

It is indeed one of the game changing initiatives that will help the technology focussed businesses to penetrate into the Saudi Arabian market.

Especially with the Vision 2030 plan that is aimed to diversify the economy, the vision will also focus on creating more private sector jobs for the growing populace of the Kingdom, thus placing the Government’s finances on better launch pads.