RIYADH: American multinational technology conglomerate Meta has announced the launch of a new training program named ‘Meta Boost’ to support 20,000 small and medium enterprises in Saudi Arabia. The new program is being carried out in cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority, known as Monsha’at, according to a report by the Saudi Press Agency. The tech giant aims to support 20,000 SMEs through this initiative by providing education and training on the use of Meta products and tools to accelerate business growth online. The SPA report added that the Meta Boost program will also increase the productivity of SMEs in the Kingdom, paving the way to increase their contribution to the nation’s gross domestic product to 35 percent by 2030, in alignment with the goals mapped out in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. “MCIT’s ambitious efforts always aim to contribute to the digital economy of the Kingdom, and SMEs are considered as a key integral part of the sector and a cornerstone of its future plans which are driven by Vision 2030,” said Assistant Deputy Minister for Technology and Investment at MCIT Nasser Alnasser. He added: “We, at MCIT, are proud to work with Monsha’at and Meta to support SMEs through Meta Boost to realize those plans.” The program will also offer dedicated workshops and masterclasses to SMEs organized by experts at Meta. A resource hub for SMEs and a watch channel are also included in the Meta Boost program, the report added. The hub will provide SMEs with access to a suite of free tools, on-demand training videos and best-practice digital marketing strategies directly from Meta experts, along with live training sessions provided by AstroLabs. “The Kingdom’s SMEs account for 99.5 percent of all businesses, so helping the SME community in Saudi Arabia thrive and grow is a priority for us. This is why we developed a tailored Meta Boost program that supports the digitization of 20,000 local SMBs through a series of capacity-building workshops and resources,” said Joelle Awwad, head of Policy Programs at Meta for the Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye region. Earlier in June, during an exclusive interview with Arab News, Sulaiman Al-Mazroua, CEO of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, said that SMEs in the Kingdom should develop innovative technological ideas to fill gaps in logistics. “This area (technology) in logistics, specifically, is very attractive to small and medium businesses, and innovation in that area is extremely open. So, with more SMEs coming in to fill gaps in logistics, you will need less time and cost to produce. And whenever there’s competition, innovation comes to play,” said Al-Mazroua.