RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s information and communications technology, or ICT, spending is expected to reach $32.9 billion in 2022, a year-on-year growth of 2.3 percent, the International Data Corp. forecasted.
The Saudi ICT sector expanded 8 percent between 2019 and 2021, to reach a value of $32.1 billion.
This came during the 8th edition forum, hosted jointly by the Communications and Information Technology Commission and International Data Corp., to tackle the current ICT market and Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation journey.
The global market intelligence provider has also described the Saudi ICT sector as one of the most rapidly growing markets in the region.
"The Kingdom's response to the pandemic was one of the strongest and most robust that any economy had to the pandemic," said IDC’s associate vice president for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.”
"IDC research shows that the Kingdom was way ahead of the curve in terms of its preparedness and response to the pandemic, and the pioneering Vision 2030 initiative has been a key facilitator of that success,” Hamza Naqshbandi added.
Since 2017, Saudi Arabia has added 37,000 telecommunication towers covering about 99 percent of the Kingdom's area, with the value of its ICT and postal markets exceeding SR140 billion ($37 billion) in 2021.
In a global context, IDC forecasted that worldwide ICT spending will increase from $3.86 trillion in 2021 to $5.34 trillion in 2025.
Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group, a tech media, data and marketing services company.
