Saudi Arabia is expected to spend more than $32.9 billion on their ICT sector in 2022, the International Data Corporation (IDC) found.
The kingdom’s ICT sector, valued at $32.1bn, expanded 8 percent between 2019 and 2021. As part of the kingdom’s economic diversification masterplan Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia sought to grow the ICT sector’s contribution to GDP from 3.6 percent in 2017 to 4.6 percent in 2023.
“The growth we have forecast for Saudi Arabia’s ICT sector in 2022 is particularly significant when viewed in a regional context. And this is feeding into a broader global trend, with IDC forecasting that worldwide ICT spending will increase from $3.86 trillion (SR14.48 trillion) in 2021 to $5.34 trillion (SR20.03 trillion) in 2025,” Hamza Naqshbandi, IDC’s associate vice president for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain said at an event in Saudi Arabia this week.
Saudi Arabia’s ICT Strategy 2023 outlines creating more than 25,000 jobs in the sector, increasing the size of the IT market and emerging technologies by 50 percent, and raising the sector’s contribution to GDP by SAR50bn ($13.3bn).
The kingdom is actively working to diversify its economy away from oil, once the sole lifeblood of the country’s economy. Saudi has doubled down on efforts to increase domestic and international tourism and lower barriers to doing business in the country. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has undertaken an aggressive reform programme to make the kingdom more attractive to foreign visitors and businesses.
Specifically, in the ICT sector, regulatory changes have been made to level the playing field for investments between foreign and local companies, the Capital Markets Authority’s (CMA) removal of the 49 percent ownership limit for foreign investors, and MCIT’s launch of an ambitious national ICT strategy, analysis from Arthur D. Little found.
