The Kingdom is racing against time to meet the aspirations of its citizens and enable them to obtain government services as quickly as possible, but how?

Anyone who follows the achievements of Saudi Vision 2030 in 2021 can see how the achievements of the three strategic pillars of the vision have affected digital assets, and here we will review each one separately.

A vibrant society with a healthy lifestyle

The first pillar focuses on building a vibrant society that enjoys a healthy lifestyle and empowers individuals to lead change and transformation towards a bright and promising future. Digital transformation has played a significant role in facilitating access to healthcare services more quickly, with less effort, and at a lower cost.

The Ministry of Health provided 140 million digital services in 2021 through three health applications: Sehaty, Wasfati, and Mawid, as follows:

The Sehaty app provided its services to more than 23 million beneficiaries in 2021, and enabled beneficiaries to book Corona tests, which reached 9.5 million tests.

The number of digital prescriptions issued through the Wasfati app exceeded 23 million in 2021, distributed across 3,000 pharmacies. The Mawid app facilitated over 108 million appointments for more than 26 million users. The Saudi Red Crescent Authority launched the Mustasib (Responder) smartphone app to enhance response times to incidents and save lives, reducing arrival times to less than 8 minutes. These achievements contributed to the Authority ranking 13th out of 184 countries in the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Global Competitiveness Index.

Digital transformation has opened new horizons for quality of life sectors, with the launch of the "Hawi" platform to support amateur talents in the Kingdom by enabling them to establish clubs for their favorite hobbies. The General Entertainment Authority also provided an electronic portal for issuing licenses to provide entertainment services of all kinds, in cooperation with more than 10 government entities, and issued more than 6,000 licenses from the portal's launch until the end of 2021.

A thriving economy promotes development

The second pillar focuses on creating opportunities for a thriving economy so that it can enhance its role in economic development, provide job opportunities for citizens, and increase its contribution to the gross domestic product.

Digital transformation has created economic opportunities, with the Ministry of Commerce issuing more than 11,000 commercial registrations for e-commerce activities in 2021.

In the area of ​​financial technology, the number of licensed financial technology companies has reached 18, and licenses have been granted to two local digital banks.

In the field of e-learning, 19 training programs were launched to develop the skills of human resources on the e-learning tourism platform, benefiting more than 111,000 trainees.

The "Ihsan" platform and social contributions

In the field of charitable work, the National Platform for Charitable Work (Ihsan) was launched to provide diverse opportunities for charitable work to enable the government sectors, private companies and non-profits to contribute to society. The total donations of the platform during 2021 amounted to more than one billion riyals, and the number of donation operations reached 16 million operations.

The National Donations Platform (Tabarru’) reached over 2.4 million beneficiaries of donations by the end of 2021. Total contributions to the Waqfi platform exceeded 75 million riyals by the end of 2021.

The achievements of this pillar led to an increase in the maturity rate of digital government services from 60% in 2018 to 84% in 2021.

By the end of 2021, the number of digital services provided by government entities in the Kingdom reached 6,000, representing 97% of all government services delivered digitally. This contributed to savings of over 400 million riyals in government spending.

Building on the achievements of Vision 2030 in 2021, the number of electronic applications and platforms in the Kingdom increased, as did the volume of data and information related to government and economic services. This indicates an increase in the National Data Bank's assets in 2021; therefore, the size and value of the government's and citizens' digital assets have risen both materially and in terms of their value under Vision 2030.

An ambitious nation and an effective government

The third pillar focuses on enhancing the effectiveness of the government, and this can only be achieved through an effective, transparent, and high-performing government that provides an enabling environment for all citizens and promotes the role and initiatives of the non-profit sector in sustainable development.

In March 2021, the Kingdom established the Digital Government Authority to implement its digital transformation plans. The Authority launched the Digital Government Policy to accelerate digital transformation in the government sector and the Unified Logistics Platform initiative, in collaboration with 13 government entities and companies, encompassing 25 government platforms offering 600 services.

In the digital economy, the number of point-of-sale (POS) terminals in the Kingdom has reached over one million, spread across more than 180 cities and towns. The Kingdom also recorded the highest rate of near-field communication (NFC) payment adoption at 94%, ranking among the top countries in the European Union, Hong Kong, Canada, and the Middle East and North Africa region.

In the judicial field, approximately 4.5 million digital powers of attorney were issued in 2021. 3.4 million remote court sessions were held, and 370,000 court rulings were issued through the e-litigation service.