Riyadh, December 8, 2019, SPA -- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made great progress in the United Nations e-commerce index issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), as it came to the forefront of the most developed countries in the index to be among the top 10 countries in the e-commerce sector, as well as it ranked 49th in the global ranking, advancing 3 places in the general index. The newly released report indicated that the improvement achieved by the Kingdom came from two criteria, the first one is the proportion of internet use among individuals, witnessing a remarkable increase in the presence of an enabling and supportive digital structure, and contributing to the high prevalence of internet use among individuals to 93%. The second one is the postal reliability standard, which enabled the liberalization of the postal and logistic services sector to achieve clear progress in it, as the percentage of improvement jumped to 93% instead of 80%, according to the previous reading that took place in the past year, as this indicator depends on four pillars of measurement including reliability, access, connectivity, and flexibility. For his part, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al-Sawaha, confirmed that this achievement came as a result of unlimited support from the leadership, which was reflected at the advanced level reached by the communications and information technology sector in the Kingdom and contributed to establishing a solid digital structure, indicating that the Ministry, through its five-year strategy 2023, works with partners to develop the Kingdom's digital capabilities in the field of communications and information technology, to invest it in an optimal way in the growth of its future projects in order to achieve the Kingdom's Vision 2030, serve individuals and societies, and keep pace with national requirements and global developments. -- SPA 14:40 LOCAL TIME 11:40 GMT 0006 www.spa.gov.sa/w1224162