Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al-Swaha, Minister of Communication and Information Technology, disclosed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is moving forward to get transformed into a digital economy, adding that the state's institutions managed to use the latest technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
He added that the IT market in the Kingdom with the latest IT services, software and equipment reached about $12 billion, while the emerging technology market stood at $10 billion, placing the Kingdom among the world's most developed markets.
On the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) being held in Barcelona, Spain, Eng. Al-Swaha affirmed that the Kingdom aims to become the largest digital market in the Middle East and North Africa, adding that a contribution of Smart Cities' projects to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to reach about $2 billion by 2030.
According to SPA, he highlighted the Kingdom's success of the crowds management through adapting technology to serve guests and visitors of the Two Holy Mosques.
Eng. Al-Swaha said that the solid infrastructure of the Kingdom's communication sector has enabled the health sector to improve and provide many benefits that have saved time and effort, pointing out that the health sector will contribute with about $500 million to the GDP by 2030. He stressed that the expected economic impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Kingdom is estimated at $4 billion by 2030.
He added that the ministry has built the latest solutions and technological applications yielded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution to achieve objectives of the Kingdom Vision 2030, SPA reported.