RIYADH, 2 March 2004 — There is an urgent need for more Saudi IT professionals, the Riyadh International Communications and Information Technology conference heard yesterday.
Dr. Ahmed Sindi, the general manager of the Commission for Telecommunication and Information Technology (CIT) said the number of IT graduates in the Kingdom stood at just over 3,000, or one percent of the workforce, as against three percent in other countries.
Sindi said IT contributed between 50 and 70 percent of a company’s productivity.
He said one of the priorities of the permanent committee on e-commerce was to promote e-business in the Kingdom. The effort should move in tandem with human resources development to ensure balanced growth, he added.
Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Fawaz Al-Alamy told Arab News it was up to the private sector to invest in IT since the government was under budgetary constraints.
“The government can only regulate, oversee and support the private sector, which is the main engine of growth. These regulations are in the interest of the private sector, which has invested heavily in the IT sector,” he said.
