Saudi Arabia successfully responded to digital challenges of COVID-19: Al-Swaha

Saudi Arabia successfully responded to digital challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, Abdullah Al-Swaha, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said during the FII forum on Jan. 27.

One of the toughest decisions when the Saudi Cabinet was discussing the lockdown, to control the spread of coronavirus, was if entrepreneurs are ready to provide digital alternatives to deliver food, medical supplies and emergency services to support the residents and citizens of the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabis was also keen to go digital, shift to and accelerate the push to a cashless society, in which fintech has bloomed within the Kingdom with a 40% penetration.

Saudi Arabia’s “agility and executional speed” to invest in technology has given the Kingdom the largest digital investment in the MENA region, worth a billion dollars, the minister added, during the panel entitled “Cracking the Code: What is the future of global technology policy?”

Every regulator has to be dynamic with a regulatory reset, and with innovative approaches, the Saudi minister concluded.