Saudi telecom sector market hits SR180 billion, says CITC governor

RIYADH: The volume of the telecom sector in the Kingdom is estimated at SR180 billion while capital investment is more than SR50 billion, said Abdulaziz Salem Al-Rwais, governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC).
Addressing a forum on the sector in Riyadh on Wednesday, Al-Rwais said spending on telecom and IT reached more than SR130 billion in 2016.
He added that the contribution of the sector to gross domestic product (GDP) and nonoil GDP reached 6 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
He said he expected the volume of spending on telecom and IT services would grow to SR138 billion by the end of 2017, thanks to investments by the government and private sectors.
He said the National Transformation Program (NTP) 2020 came as a key support program to realize Saudi Vision 2030. The telecom and IT sector is considered one of the pillars of the NTP 2020 where components of Vision 2030 include the telecom sector and related elements such as infrastructure, broadband, creativity in advanced technologies and investment in the digital economy.
The CITC prepared a plan to bring the sector to a higher competitive position that could provide distinguished services for subscribers and act as a stimulus environment for investors with a number of projects. These steps will increase investments in the sector in hosting, cloud computing, supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and boosting secured networks and information, he said.
He said development in the next years would depend on the telecom and IT sectors covering bank services, e-education, e-government and health services.
This will create attractive investment opportunities, which have to be met with skills, creativity and the rich experiences of the private sector to push the wheels of development forward in this generous country, he said.
He stressed that the CITC would continue efforts to create an effective regulatory environment in a bid to attract and localize investments in the sector.