Ashraf AboArafe
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) achieved the second place among the G20 countries, and the fourth place globally in the readiness of digital regulations, following its success in building a sustainable regulatory framework and shifting towards digital cooperative regulation to enable the digital economy.
His Excellency the Governor of the Communications, Space and Technology Commission, Dr. Muhammad bin Saud Al-Tamimi, explained on this occasion that the Kingdom, represented by the Communications, Space and Technology Commission, has succeeded in achieving this achievement as a result of the unlimited support of the communications and technology sector from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the empowerment of His Highness, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Prince Muhammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, and the close follow-up of His Excellency the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Authority, Eng. It is consistent with global trends in this field.
His Excellency Al-Tamimi indicated that the Authority, in its regulatory role, launched many development initiatives for the organizations of the telecommunications and technology sector to bring it towards the highest levels of regulatory maturity globally, as it established the National Regulations Committee and the Digital Regulations Academy as a strategic step to provide an attractive and stimulating regulatory environment for various sectors, and to promote investment in the digital economy and accelerate transformation. Digital, and achieving the highest level of coordination between the regulatory authorities, as well as harmonization in regulating digital issues common to local and international authorities, in the interest of strengthening the digital regulatory environment in various vital sectors.
His Excellency pointed out that the Communications, Space and Technology Commission has enhanced the Kingdom’s global competitiveness through its focus on collaborative regulation and stakeholder engagement, its reliance on regulatory innovation and leadership at the international level, as well as regulatory tools for the communications and technology market, and it has also achieved innovative excellence in spectrum management.
The report issued by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) today indicated that there are five challenges facing regulators globally, most notably the unification of regulations at the national level, the continuation of sustainable economic growth, in addition to the regulatory and supervisory capacity of the regulator. The report also included a number of priority regulatory issues to deal with. By regulators, the most important of which are activities related to space, Internet platforms, artificial intelligence, digital financial services, providing an experimental regulatory environment (sandbox) for innovation, digital sustainability, and early warning systems.
It is noteworthy that the regulatory journey of the telecommunications sector in the Kingdom extends for about 95 years, starting since the establishment of the Directorate of Post, Telegraph and Telephone in 1924 AD, and the Kingdom has been able, since the establishment of the “Communications Commission” in 2001 AD, to bring about radical reforms that contributed to raising its international classification to occupy the “fifth level” in 2001. 2021 as one of the most mature sector regulators around the world, and these organizational successes are reflected in the growth of the communications and technology market in the Kingdom to become the largest and fastest growing in the region, as its volume reached 154 billion riyals, in addition to doubling the number of companies licensed to provide communications and technology services in the Kingdom, and raising the level of infrastructure Infrastructure through capital investments that exceeded 96 billion over the past six years, which contributed to the growth of Internet penetration by 100%, and raising the subscription rate in telecommunications services to 172%. Media Section of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Cairo.
