RIYADH: In a bid to enhance its digital services in Saudi Arabia, the General Authority for Statistics has launched an Economic Data Platform to allow researchers to follow up on the developments in the Kingdom. The platform, which aligns with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 objectives of enhancing digital services, provides national and global organizations with economic data and statistics. Moreover, it also offers the most significant data and indicators related to pricing, energy and gross domestic product as well as international commerce, labor market and business statistics. According to GASTAT, the launch of the platform facilitates access to economic statistics and indicators by beneficiaries and display them using interactive maps, allowing users to download them in different formats. It will provide updated and high-quality data for users to keep up with the Saudi economic domain while helping in undertaking research works and studies. “The launch of the Economic Data Platform represents the crucial role of GASTAT in providing all types of statistical data in order to support sustainable development plans and utilize statistical indicators and metadata through statistical classifications that conform with international standards and meet the user’s requirement,” GASTAT stated. The digitalization process has accelerated in Saudi Arabia, with the country digitizing more than 6,000 services or 97 percent of all government services. The Kingdom ranked first regionally and third globally in the World Bank’s GovTech Maturity Index 2022, according to the National Transformation Program report. In July, the Kingdom’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development approved the adoption of a digital service for documentation of contracts in public entities, in a push towards digitalization. The service’s goal is to keep an eye on the localization of labor, employment and maintenance contracts in public companies, the Saudi Press Agency reported. In March, Saudi Arabia was placed second among the G20 countries and fourth internationally in terms of its readiness for digital systems by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union. According to an ITU report, the ranking follows the Kingdom’s success in developing a sustainable regulatory framework and moving toward digital collaborative regulation to empower the digital economy.