— The Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA) has joined a team of Saudi entities at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, showcasing the Saudi investment opportunity at one of the world’s foremost events in the ICT and entrepreneurship sectors. Alongside MISA, the Saudi delegation also includes stc, Monsha’at, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Ministry of Culture, illustrating the Kingdom’s cross-government approach to developing the ICT ecosystem Exhibiting the leading role that Saudi Arabia is playing in the global ICT ecosystem, Invest Saudi and stc are both hosting major pavilions at the event, helping international investors and innovators to understand the opportunities available and to connect them with opportunities within Saudi Arabia. The Saudi delegation is highlighting opportunities across the sector with particular focus on areas where the business case is underpinned by particularly strong fundamentals – such as AI, the internet of things, ecommerce and cloud services. The Kingdom’s prominent position at the event is also providing an opportunity for five innovative Saudi startups attending as part of the delegation to connect with potential partners and investors. The ICT and entrepreneurship sectors are expected to play a key role in Saudi Arabia’s economic development, creating an investor-centric ecosystem to facilitate digital transformation in line with Vision 2030. The Kingdom’s National Investment Strategy, launched in October last year, sets out a number of initiatives designed to unlock investment in these sectors and enable high-growth start-ups to access the capital and partnerships they need to expand. Thanks to $15bn of investment in the last three years, Saudi Arabia is now home to world class digital infrastructure and is ranked 1st globally for average 5G download speed and has the world’s 4th largest 5G deployment. The Kingdom also boasts a strong pool of human capital and is ranked in the top ten in the world for digital skills. Entrepreneurship is at the heart of Vision 2030 – which sets a target of increasing MSME’s contribution to GDP from 20% to 35% by 2030. There has been strong growth in response to these initiatives with Saudi-based start-ups attracting $548m in investment in 2021 – a record level of investment and an increase of 270% from 2020. Held in Barcelona, Mobile World Congress attracts over 1,500 exhibitors and attendees from 165 countries, including many of the world’s leading technology companies such as Google, Meta and Microsoft. This year’s event concludes today, and has explored a number of key themes in the sector, including 5G, cloud computing, fintech, AI and the internet of things. — SPA