COUNTRY FOCUS : SAUDI ARABIA
One of the most impressive initiatives inside Saudi Arabia in the past year has been its continuous and coordinated investments and convergence in the area of cloud application hosting , cloud regions , datacentre growth , and telecom infrastructure .
Cloud , smart cities , in driving IT spending
Riyadh City , Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is propelling itself into a new era of digital innovation . Fuelled by an influx of foreign direct investment and a colossal $ 7 trillion development plan for giga projects , ICT spending in Saudi Arabia is projected to soar beyond $ 34.5 billion in 2023 according to IDC . The government sector is spearheading IT spending in Saudi Arabia in 2023 , with substantial investments being made in the areas of AI , IoT , cybersecurity , and big data analytics .
The key sectors of finance , communications , energy and resources , and manufacturing will be the next biggest spenders in 2023 . Healthcare , finance , retail , wholesale , professional services , and education sectors are expected to see the fastest rates of growth over the next five years .
Saudi Arabia is currently building several smart cities , including NEOM , Red Sea , Qiddiya , Waad Alshamal , and SPARK , and aims to be the world ’ s most connected and digitised nation by 2030 . In addition , Saudi Arabia aims to equip five existing cities with smart infrastructure to rank among the top 100 cities worldwide .
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology , MCIT is responsible for sector oversight and fostering an ecosystem that enables next-generation technologies to thrive . Multiple government bodies will assist in achieving these goals , including the Communications , Space and Technology Commission , CST .
CST has facilitated the implementation of the Saudi Open Access agreement between the country ’ s six
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