Commission Highlights the Kingdom's Achievements in Celebrating World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

The Communications and Information Technology Commission is participating today in the celebration of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD-17), which falls on May 17 of each year, under the theme "Big Data for Big Impact," given its ability to transform data into practical information used in various fields. This year's World Day highlights the technical developments that have facilitated the emergence of big data, the development of standards related to big data, as well as identifying the sources and uses of big data, including its use to develop the information society and monitor the improvements made in it.

On this occasion, the Communications and Information Technology Commission affirmed that the Kingdom has made great efforts in spreading telecommunications and information technology services in all regions of the Kingdom, thanks to God and then thanks to the support the sector receives from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud - may God protect him - and his wise government. The Commission estimated the telecommunications and information technology market in the Kingdom currently at about SAR 180 billion, affirming that it is the largest in the Middle East region, while it estimated the size of capital investments in the sector at more than SAR 50 billion, and the size of spending on telecommunications and information technology services at more than SAR 130 billion during 2016, and noted that the sector's contribution to GDP reached about (6%) and about (10%) of non-oil GDP. The Commission expected the volume of spending on telecommunications and information technology services to grow to around (138) billion riyals by the end of 2017.

Regarding what the sector recently achieved internationally, the Commission stated that the Kingdom achieved advanced ranks among (139) countries, achieving 3rd place in mobile telecom services penetration rate, 7th place in the importance of telecommunications and information technology for the government's future vision, 7th place in the extent of the government's success in encouraging the use of information and communication technology, and 15th place in the spread of broadband services via mobile telecom networks, according to reports issued by the International Telecommunication Union, and the Kingdom also won (7) awards from the United Nations for World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) project prizes, for the past five consecutive years.