Saudi Arabia aims to become a top 20 digital powerhouse by 2030: Deputy telcom minister

Saudi Arabia aims to become a top 20 digital powerhouse by 2030: Deputy telcom minister

RIYADH — Bassam Al-Bassam, deputy Minister for telecom and digital infrastructure at Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), reiterated Saudi Arabia's objective to become a top 20 digital powerhouse by 2030.The Kingdom seeks to achieve its objective by working with industry players to develop and adopt more 5G and IoT use cases in new verticals in the Kingdom such as the education, health, and oil and gas sectors, he said.The first partnership of developing dedicated networks was signed with Aramco, STC and Huawei last month with a plan to extend this further in the near future.Al-Bassam made the remarks as he delivered the opening note of the GTI Summit 2021, part of Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2021, early this week.Al-Bassam highlighted how countries that have better-developed digital infrastructure have been better able to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and build a path toward a more resilient future. In particular, the deputy minister noted how growing Saudi Arabia's digital economy and becoming a leading digital society is at the