RIYADH — Saudi Arabia ranked first on the Government Electronic and Mobile Services Maturity Index for 2022, issued by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The index aims to measure the maturity of government services provided through e-portals and mobile applications through three main pillars: service availability and sophistication, use and user satisfaction, and the government’s efforts to public outreach, where the report included 18 countries. Governor of the Digital Government Authority (DGA) Eng. Ahmed Mohammed Al-Suwaiyan expressed his gratitude and appreciation to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman for the extensive support to the digital government. This backing has enabled it to excel on top international indexes, noting that this success is a result of integration and joint action among government entities to realize digital transformation targets within the programs of the Saudi Vision 2030. Al-Suwaiyan stressed that achieving the first position on the index is consistent with Saudi Arabia’s progress in the field of digital government, which has contributed to improving individuals’ quality of life, improving competitiveness, and easing doing business for business companies, and enhancing the efficiency of government work. The index focuses on 84 government services essential for individuals and businesses in priority sectors. Saudi Arabia excelled in the three sub-indicators and maintained its lead in the first sub-indicator on service availability and sophistication, where it ranked first with a percentage of 96%. In contrast, Saudi Arabia also ranked first as the second sub-indicator of use and user satisfaction. It continued to rise in this area and made more than 37% progress over the past two versions to reach a maturity rate of 79.24%. As for the third indicator of the government’s efforts to public outreach, Saudi Arabia achieved a rise at the level of this sub-index to realize a maturity rate of 86.48% and ranked third. The Kingdom has recently achieved third place in the world among 198 countries, according to the World Bank Group’s 2022 GovTech Maturity Index. It has reached its highest historical result in the UN e-Government Development Index since its launch more than 20 years ago. Riyadh ranked fourth globally in the use of technology and its applications within the “very high” range among 193 cities worldwide. — SPA