Riyadh, April 01, 2020, SPA -- Upon directives and support of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Public Investment Fund, the National Committee for Digital Transformation has issued the National Digital Transformation Annual Report for 2019 reviewing digital transformation’s most significant achievements in Saudi Arabia, where it is considered as a key factor for accomplishing the Saudi Vision 2030, which aims at creating an ambitious nation, vibrant society, and a thriving economy. The report highlights the outstanding efforts of government entities that collaborated to implement digital initiatives and deliver achievements in all sectors by adopting all digital transformations, which contributed to creating sustainable digital job opportunities and accelerating digital transformation across all sectors, as well as preparing for the next stage of growth, increasing local content and enhancing the digital economy’s contribution to the Kingdom’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The astonishing achievements and initiatives provided by the different sectors were highlighted in the report, including most notable achievement of the smart government sector, where Absher-services platform processed more than 26 million operations, with an estimated saving of 15 billion riyals annually, and more than 44 million operations were also processed through the “ Single sign-on (SSO)” platform. As for the civil service sector, more than 3 million citizens benefited from the services provided on the e-platform, the time, the end of service procedures time has been reduced to 48 hours, and more than 3 million shipments were delivered using the “National Address.” In justice sector, the concept of “paperless court ” has been activated, causing 75% reduction in paper use and 179 courts used e-system. Digital health sector recorded over 36 million appointments on “Mawid” platform, and more than 11 million people in Saudi Arabia were registered in “Unified Electronic Medical Record”. As for digital education sector, “Noor” Program stored more than 36 million certificates, and in digital culture and tourism sector, over 200 thousand e-visas were issued via the “Tourist Visa Platform,” while the digital infrastructure, 3 million homes have been covered with Fiber-Optic, and more than 300 thousand homes have been covered with Wireless Broadband. These accomplished achievements have enabled the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to make a remarkable advancement in global indicators, where in the Ease of Doing Business Report by The World Bank, Saudi Arabia was the top global reformer of business environment, and was ranked as the 3rd globally with largest 5G (Generation) network worldwide. Saudi Arabia also ranks second among the G20 countries in the liberalization of frequency bands. Saudi Arabia also advanced from 141 to 38 rank in “Starting a Business Index” in the report issued by World Bank. In addition, it ranks as the 3rd among the G20 countries in technology governance. According to the United Nations, Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, ranks 30th among the most sustainable smart cities. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also has the 13th highest internet speed average globally, with 50.80 Mbps for mobile Internet and 50.68 for fixed Internet. --SPA 12:39 LOCAL TIME 09:39 GMT 0008 www.spa.gov.sa/w1298966