RIYADH – Abdullah Al-Sawaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), revealed the Kingdom's goal for the next stage to shift from the national digital building and empowerment to a digital economy, which requires new leadership methods for implementation.

He said in a post on his account on Snapchat that MCIT used to rely on the main performance indicators, such as bridging the digital gap. Meanwhile, the ministry will work on measuring the performance in 2022, which means moving to the main goals and results so that the team knows the relevant goal.

The latest World Bank indicators confirmed that every 1 percent increase in bridging the digital gap has a positive relationship to the gross domestic product (GDP) growth from 0.5 percent to 1 percent, which is the optimal method for digital economic growth.

Al-Sawaha stressed that the ministry will focus on deploying optical fibers in places with high population density, as this helps achieve creativity and innovation through the expansion of the 5G network and smart cities.

The minister also targeted the building of a solid infrastructure for the digital economy (known as economies of agglomeration), which helps create entrepreneurial companies and an integrated digital economy.

He confirmed that the ministry is also working to make the Kingdom among the top 10 digital economies, which requires a 6 percent growth in telecommunications and a 12 percent rise in the technology market. This also requires an increase in the number of jobs to 25,000. – SG