ICT
From The Report: Saudi Arabia 2018
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Accounting for 6% of GDP and 10% of non-oil GDP in 2016, according to the Communications and Information Technology Commission, Saudi Arabia’s ICT sector plays an important part in the Kingdom’s economy. Spending in the sector exceeded SR130bn ($34.7bn) in 2016, and in 2017 it was expected to reach SR138bn ($36.8bn) despite economic headwinds. The government’s recently finalised economic strategy places ICT at the centre of the nation’s development, and telecoms players, hardware and software providers, and service operators all stand to benefit from the array of state-directed initiatives it has set in motion. Regulatory changes however have added pressure to ICT companies’ bottom lines over the past year, and the industry is responding by reining in expenditure and shifting the strategic focus to new products and services.
This chapter contains interviews with Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communication & Information Technology; Prince Naif bin Sultan bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Kabeer, Chairman, Zain Saudi Arabia; and Essam Alshiha, CEO, Saudi Business Machines.
Articles from this Chapter
Economic enabler: Mobile penetration rates remain high as competition increases
New frontiers: Abdullah Alswaha, Minister of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), on the importance of digitisationOBGplus
Interview:Abdullah Alswaha How will the planned digitisation policies impact the Kingdom’s citizens and businesses? ABDULLAH ALSWAHA: Saudi Arabia’s ICT sector has come a long way over the past 15 years. However, neither the industry’s potential, nor its role as an enabler have been fully realised as of yet. This represents a major opportunity. Both citizens and business now largely depend on digital applications for their welfare and competitiveness. Vision 2030 and the National Transformation…
Head start: Investment in young technology firms is in line with goals to diversify the economyOBGplus
Rapidly expanding technology firms have become some of the most sought after targets in the global investment arena, and Saudi Arabian entities have played a prominent part in this trend. The emergence of Careem, a rival to Uber in the Middle East, is a prime example of how young tech operations in the region are attracting significant amounts of capital from both private sector investors and state-owned institutions in the Kingdom. In addition to securing funding from Al Tayyar Travel Group…
Data driven: Prince Naif bin Sultan bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Kabeer, Chairman, Zain Saudi Arabia, on growing data services and profitability in a competitive environmentOBGplus
Interview: Prince Naif bin Sultan bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Kabeer To what extent are unlimited data services sustainable from a profitability standpoint? PRINCE NAIF BIN SULTAN BIN MOHAMMED BIN SAUD AL KABEER: The current wave of phenomenal growth in mobile data services and traffic is driving connections and smart phone penetration ever higher. Zain Saudi Arabia users consume more than 4000 TB of data on a daily basis. As a point of reference, the amount of data on the web in 2000 was thought…
Data driven: Prince Naif bin Sultan bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Kabeer, Chairman, Zain Saudi Arabia, on growing data services and profitability in a competitive environmentOBGplus
Interview: Prince Naif bin Sultan bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Kabeer To what extent are unlimited data services sustainable from a profitability standpoint? PRINCE NAIF BIN SULTAN BIN MOHAMMED BIN SAUD AL KABEER: The current wave of phenomenal growth in mobile data services and traffic is driving connections and smart phone penetration ever higher. Zain Saudi Arabia users consume more than 4000 TB of data on a daily basis. As a point of reference, the amount of data on the web in 2000 was thought…
Increased mobility: Smartphones and apps are playing an increasingly salient role in the daily lives of citizensOBGplus
The cost of a smartphone in Saudi Arabia has declined rapidly in recent years. The arrival of affordable brands such as China’s InnJoo, which entered the market in late 2014 with a model priced at SR299 ($79.70), has made smartphone technology more accessible than ever. In July 2017 another Chinese firm, Huawei, pushed the iPhone into third place in the Kingdom’s mobile market, gaining a market share of 17.3%. Smartphones can now be found in the hands of citizens in nearly every income…
Building drive: Essam Alshiha, CEO, Saudi Business Machines, on IT spending and digital transformationOBGplus
Interview: Essam Alshiha In what ways is digital transformation impacting opportunities in the IT business? ESSAM ALSHIHA: Saudi Vision 2030 presents a variety of opportunities for local and international IT players, such as security, internet of things (IoT), big data analytics and hardware. Saudi Arabia aims to have a paperless environment by 2020, and this is driving the growth of smartphones and smart machine applications. Saudi Arabia has a very young population, and Vision 2030 will require…
Building drive: Essam Alshiha, CEO, Saudi Business Machines, on IT spending and digital transformationOBGplus
Interview: Essam Alshiha In what ways is digital transformation impacting opportunities in the IT business? ESSAM ALSHIHA: Saudi Vision 2030 presents a variety of opportunities for local and international IT players, such as security, internet of things (IoT), big data analytics and hardware. Saudi Arabia aims to have a paperless environment by 2020, and this is driving the growth of smartphones and smart machine applications. Saudi Arabia has a very young population, and Vision 2030 will require…
Broad appeal: The broadband network is expanding rapidly, though fixed connections are far outnumbered by mobile subscriptionsOBGplus
With a land mass bigger than that of both Iran and Pakistan, Saudi Arabian telecoms firms intending to roll out infrastructure to the country’s widely distributed population face an expensive proposition. Rural areas, in particular, have historically represented a financially unattractive prospect, lacking the client base that would make large-scale investment worthwhile. Consequently, while the Kingdom had achieved a mobile penetration rate of 190% by 2010, a study by global research…
Broad appeal: The broadband network is expanding rapidly, though fixed connections are far outnumbered by mobile subscriptionsOBGplus
With a land mass bigger than that of both Iran and Pakistan, Saudi Arabian telecoms firms intending to roll out infrastructure to the country’s widely distributed population face an expensive proposition. Rural areas, in particular, have historically represented a financially unattractive prospect, lacking the client base that would make large-scale investment worthwhile. Consequently, while the Kingdom had achieved a mobile penetration rate of 190% by 2010, a study by global research…
Expansion on the horizon: Favourable forecast for the Kingdom’s e-commerce marketOBGplus
The GCC region, with its high disposable incomes, saturated mobile telephony markets, rapidly increasing smartphone penetration and young populations, has all the necessary ingredients for an e-commerce boom. Estimates as to the size of the region’s e-commerce market and its potential growth trajectory vary, but a comprehensive study carried out by global management consultancy AT Kearney in 2015 anticipated a rapid expansion in GCC electronic transactions from $5.3bn to nearly $20bn by…
Future methods: Ground made towards achieving Saudiisation targets and enhancing digital channels for customersOBGplus
One of the effects of the current low-oil price environment has been a return of the concept of Saudiisation to the top of the economic agenda – a development which has had significant impacts on the telecoms sector. In 2016 the Kingdom introduced its latest iteration of the nitaqat framework, a system that evaluates companies on their Saudiisation level and assigns them a colour category accordingly: yellow or red for those with poor performances, and platinum, blue or green for the businesses…
Digital arms: Government initiatives help drive digitisation across the economyOBGplus
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy establishes ICT as a central pillar of the Kingdom’s future development. A number of Saudi ministries have been actively pursuing an ICT agenda for some years, and this work is set to accelerate as they strive to meet the shorter-term objectives recently defined by the National Transformation Programme (NTP). However, while to date the ministries’ efforts have often been carried out in isolation, recent developments suggest that a more connected approach…
Digital arms: Government initiatives help drive digitisation across the economyOBGplus
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy establishes ICT as a central pillar of the Kingdom’s future development. A number of Saudi ministries have been actively pursuing an ICT agenda for some years, and this work is set to accelerate as they strive to meet the shorter-term objectives recently defined by the National Transformation Programme (NTP). However, while to date the ministries’ efforts have often been carried out in isolation, recent developments suggest that a more connected approach may be taken by the government in the future as it seeks to meet its goals. “The NTP has laid the foundation for digital transformation-led…
A secure footing: Call for new legislation as the cloud services segment growsOBGplus
Cybersecurity stands at an interesting developmental stage in Saudi Arabia. Unevenly applied in the private sector, a combination of market forces and regulatory encouragement is driving its uptake in areas where online transactions are increasingly becoming the norm. Elsewhere in the economy, the development of cloud services is presenting a data protection challenge to a much wider array of businesses. This is being met by the government with an overhaul of the ICT regulatory framework…
A secure footing: Call for new legislation as the cloud services segment growsOBGplus
Cybersecurity stands at an interesting developmental stage in Saudi Arabia. Unevenly applied in the private sector, a combination of market forces and regulatory encouragement is driving its uptake in areas where online transactions are increasingly becoming the norm. Elsewhere in the economy, the development of cloud services is presenting a data protection challenge to a much wider array of businesses. This is being met by the government with an overhaul of the ICT regulatory framework…
