RIYADH, 25 April 2005 — The Kingdom is on course for switch over to e-governance, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Muhammad Jameel Mulla said yesterday. He was speaking at a press conference after inaugurating GITEX Saudi Arabia 2005 at the Riyadh Exhibition Center.
The five-day exhibition attracted 500 companies from 15 countries; there were more than 5,000 visitors on the first day with 80,000 being targeted.
“We have a structured organization for the implementation of e-government,” the minister said, adding that there was a special committee comprising the ministers of finance and communications and information technology and the governor of Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) to supervise the implementation programs.
He pointed out that there were several subcommittees working under the ministerial committee to streamline the programs envisaged by the government.
“We have already started a pilot project between the ministries of finance and the communications and information technology which will indicate teething troubles and what could be done in the implementation programs in other ministries.”
Although Voice Operated Internet Protocol (VoIP) is illegal in the Kingdom, the minister indicated that the government will make it legal in order to keep pace with technology.
Referring to IT parks, he said his ministry had been assisting projects in Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah.
Among IT players at the show were such international vendors as Samsung, Epson, Acer, Toshiba and Samsung as well as key IT firms including Jeraisy, Hoshan, Modern Electronics and Jarir Bookstore.
“The show provides an ideal platform for exhibitors to launch the latest technology and services into the largest market in the Middle East,” said Muhammad Al-Hussaini, deputy general manager of the Riyadh Exhibition Center. He added that the Kingdom is the region’s No. 1 market for sales of computers and IT applications.
Annual sales of computers, worth up to $800 million a year, projected an average growth of about 15 percent in units during the past two years. The Saudi market for application software exceeded $600 million in 2003 and is growing 10 percent annually.
“The increased use of Internet in the Kingdom by both businesses and consumers, the increased use of e-commerce, lower subscription fees for Internet services and the introduction of computers in thousands of Saudi schools are creating great opportunities for hardware and software suppliers,” Al-Hussaini said.
