RIYADH — The National Transformation Program (NTP) recently released its annual report entitled “The Transformation Continues”, reviewing its most significant achievements by the end of 2020. The report highlights key achievements and successes, which reflect the distinguished transformation and progress of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented in Saudi Vision 2030 plans.

The annual report, consisting of about 200 pages, covers tremendous and diverse achievements since the NTP is the first executive program to achieve the Saudi Vision 2030, the largest in terms of the strategic goals assigned to it, in addition to the wide system being included in it.

The National Transformation Program aims to develop the necessary infrastructure and create an environment that enables the public, private and non-profit sectors to achieve the Saudi Vision 2030.

This will be accomplished by achieving governmental operational excellence, supporting digital transformation, enabling the private sector, developing economic partnerships, and promoting social development, in addition to ensuring the sustainability of vital resources.

The NTP report documented achievements of the leading entities in the program by the end of 2020, namely: the ministries of Economy and Planning, Environment, Water and Agriculture, Justice, Health, Commerce, Investment, Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, Communications and Information Technology, Human Resources and Social Development, and Tourism. All these in addition to 66 contributing entities from multiple sectors.

The first pages of “The Transformation Continues” report included a remark by the chairman of the National Transformation Program Committee and member of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA) Mohammed bin Mazyed Al-Tuwaijri.

He pointed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that such successes are not spur-of-the-moment, but they were realized through proactive planning, long-lasting preparations and the role of Saudi Vision 2030.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia managed to achieve food security and develop one of the largest food stocks in the Middle East. Additionally, the Kingdom has activated digital transformation in all sectors.

For his part, the CEO of the National Transformation Program Eng. Thamir Bin Abdullah Al-Sadoun said that this report comes as a continuation of the previous reports that the NTP launches annually to document its progress and achievements.

He added that releasing “The Transformation Continues” report coincides with the fifth anniversary of the launch of the NTP, given that the program contributed to achieving numerous key achievements, advancing Saudi Arabia’s position in many global indicators, in addition to its role in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that the NTP, as one of the key engines to achieve Vision 2030, played a vital role in preparing robust infrastructure to handle emergencies and cope with life changes. The program improved digital infrastructure, providing more than 3.5 million houses with access to fiber-optic networks, and increased Internet speed in Saudi Arabia from 9 Mbps in 2017 to 109 Mbps in 2020.

He added that the NTP has worked on increasing women’s share in the labor market by reaching 31.8% in 2020. Moreover, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has advanced 29 ranks in the World Bank Group’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2020.

The report contains 12 sections, covering the scope of the NTP's work in its first five years until the end of 2020, starting with statements by members of the NTP Committee, in addition to a special section on National Transformation Program Key Performance Indicators which achieved their targets and those where effort is ongoing to achieve aspirations.

The first section of the report, entitled Empowering the Private Sector and Attracting Foreign Investments, highlighted the most prominent accomplishments within the commerce and investment system, led by Commerce and Investment Ministries.

Saudi Arabia conducted more than 555 reforms to better serve investors and reduced the time required to start a business from 15 days to 30 minutes only. The number of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) has also increased to more than 626,000.

Saudi Arabia also launched the “Invest in Saudi Arabia” initiative and issued 1,278 foreign investment licenses in 2020.

The Digital Transformation section presented Saudi Arabia’s digital and technological progress in the field of developing the digital economy and activating the digital government across all sectors, which contributed to raising the level of transparency and fighting corruption.

Among the key achievements, Saudi Arabia was named “Top Digital Riser” according to the Digital Riser Report 2020 issued by the European Center for Digital Competitiveness. Additionally, the Kingdom has leapt 40 places in the Telecommunications Infrastructure Index, published by the United Nations.

Saudi Arabia also advanced in the “Corruption Perception Index” (CPI), issued by Transparency International. The Kingdom moved from the 62nd rank in 2016 to the 52nd rank in 2020.

As for the health sector and the NTP initiatives that contributed to improve the health care, the “Transform Healthcare” section presented the most significant achievements of improving the quality and efficiency of health services, facilitating access to them, and enhancing prevention against health risks including activating e-health and establishing applications, platforms and centers which were prior to the pandemic.

The applications and services include Seha, Mawid, Wasfaty service, Drug Track and Trace System “RSD” and the 937 center. The Public Health Authority “Weqaya” was also established. Traffic Safety in the Kingdom also enhanced, as the number of traffic accident fatalities (per 100,000 people) reduced by 53% between 2016 and 2020.

Regarding the tourism sector’s development and preserving national heritage, the NTP initiatives contributed to strengthening Saudi Arabia’s position in the tourism industry via launching the tourist visa. Other important achievements include adding Al-Ahsa Oasis to the UNESCO List for World Heritage sites, bringing the number of heritage sites enrolled in UNESCO up to five sites.

Meanwhile, the Women Empowerment section noted that Saudi women's economic participation rate reached 33.5% in 2020.

In Promoting Community Development and Developing the Non-Profit Sector section, indicators showed that the number of volunteers reached 409,123 in 2020, exceeding the 2020 target of 300,000 volunteers.

As for Increasing Labor Market Attractiveness section, the percentage of workers with disabilities who are able to work has increased from 7.70% in 2016 to 12% by the end of 2020, close to the target of 12.4%.

Improve the Quality of Justice Services section in the report indicated that the NTP initiatives have contributed to raising the operational efficiency of the justice system, where 82% of Ministry of Justice services were provided electronically by the end of 2020.

Through the initiatives, a number of justice centers were also established, including the Claim Examination Center, through which more one million claims were reviewed.

As many as 32 “Shaml” Centers were launched across the Kingdom to enforce custody and visitation rulings. This is in addition to implementing legislative improvements to the judicial sector including issuing mediation rules, notarization laws and regulations and commercial court laws and regulations.

The report underlined the NTP efforts to ensure the sustainability of vital resources. Therefore, five environmental centers were launched with the objective of protecting and developing the environmental sector.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also taken the lead in the global production of desalinated water with a higher production capacity at 5.9 million m3 per day in 2020. The Kingdom’s fish farming production and exports increased in 2020 to 100,000 tons.

Improving Saudi Cities section in the "Transformation Continues" report reviewed major achievements regarding improving the quality of services provided in Saudi cities. This included launching the Municipal Investment Portal “Furas” and Unified Electronic Portal “Balady”.

In order to improve the urban landscape, more than 14 million trees and flowers were pruned, landscaped and planted. In addition to rehabilitating over 37 million m2 of gardens and green spaces.

Adhering to transparency values set by Vision 2030, where strategic objectives, plans, performance indicators and targets are published, the report concluded by reviewing the National Transformation Program Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The annual report, bearing “The Transformation Continues” title, comes to affirm the continuation of the NTP march and documents achievements of the end of an important stage of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, in his speech to inaugurate the works of the 1st year of the 8th session of the Shoura Council, described this phase as the establishment phase.

During this phase, Saudi Arabia has made qualitative leaps and developments, resulting in advancing Saudi Arabia’s position among the countries of the world and providing necessary enablers to complete ambitious plans and progress in order to realize the Kingdom's Vision 2030. — SPA