Information and Communications Technologies Will Help Accelerate Digital Transformation in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia dropped 3 places to no 35 (out of 143 places) in this year’s World Economic Forum’s Network Readiness Index in the Global Information Technology Report 2015 (GITR), Cisco announced today. In response, senior Cisco executives in the Kingdom have stressed the vital importance of the Kingdom taking full advantage of the potential offered by information and communications technologies (ICTs) to drive social and economic transformation. 

Key findings of the report for KSA highlighted:

Despite the drop in rankings, the Cisco sponsored report highlights that Kingdom remains one of the leaders in the MENAP region, not too far from the other Gulf Cooperation Council members: the UAE (23rd), Qatar (27th), and Bahrain (30th). The drop has been driven mostly by increasing ICT costs although recent improvements in Internet and telephony market competition in the country could reverse this trend.

Additionally the report stresses that network tariffs in Saudi Arabia are particularly high for fixed broadband helping to explain the low subscription rate (7.4 per 100 people,), which is partly offset by the very high penetration of newer-generation mobile telephony). Business network usage has stalled over the last year, leading Saudi Arabia while other economies have improved their performance. 

Similarly, the impact of ICTs on the economy increased in Saudi Arabia, but this increase was less than occurred in other countries, pushing down Saudi Arabia a few places.

The share of knowledge-intensive jobs in the country’s total workforce remains low (27 percent). ICTs should be leveraged more to accelerate the transition of the economy toward high-value-added activities. 

The Saudi government shows the way when it comes to promoting and adopting ICTs (8th in the Government usage pillar), earning excellent marks for its online services.

However, ICTs have not yet generated significant social impact, a lack that is especially notable in improving the education system and facilitating e-participation in the Kingdom.

Crucial to achieving societal and economic transformation is the ability to embrace the Internet of Everything (IoE), the connections between people, process, data and things to create unprecedented opportunities for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s citizens, and public and private sectors.

In order to embrace the IoE, the KSA government and businesses must be fully digitised, supported by a highly robust and secure network. Becoming digital requires an agile IT model, and the ability to rethink core processes for the digital era. Embracing new security, cloud, mobile, social and analytics technologies required to fully digitize takes imagination, investment and expertise. This is why Networked Readiness is such a crucial indicator of a country’s ability to implement and take full advantage of ICTs.

The GITR report suggests that investing in infrastructure and education; supporting the development of local content; and creating an enabling environment by promoting competition through sound regulation will correct the imbalance in the Kingdom..

Cisco is committed to working with public and private sector organisations in KSA to work on strategies for the digital transformation, thereby helping them transform their IT strategy, connect everything, embrace analytics, and secure technology and operations.