Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday the launch of a unified visa platform called “Saudi Visa,” with the aim of facilitating visa application procedures, as part of its endeavor to attract more tourists in the coming years. The country also revealed its intention to fully digitalize its government services next year.
The announcement came during the second edition of the Digital Government Forum, which kicked off on Tuesday in Riyadh, with the participation of government agencies, and in the presence of ministers and local and international experts.
Addressing the event, the Governor of the Digital Government Authority, Eng. Ahmed Alsuwaiyan, said that Saudi Arabia was leading the countries of the region in the Government Electronic and Mobile Services maturity index (GEMS), which is issued by the United Nations ESCWA.
He pointed to “the record results achieved by public agencies in digital services and the saving of billions of dollars as a result of this maturity in digital transformation.”
Alsuwaiyan noted that savings amounting to SAR 5.5 billion ($1.5 billion) had been achieved by reviewing the budgets of more than 200 projects and activating four framework agreements.
He also said that the unified visa platform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allows the issuance of a visa in 60 seconds, compared to 48 hours before the implementation of the new electronic system.
The Assistant Secretary for Economic and Development Affairs in the General Secretariat of the GCC countries, Khaled Al-Sunaidi, expected the global digital economy to reach around $25 trillion within 5 years, indicating that these figures and facts reflected the great importance and inevitable need to enhance digital transformation in various fields, in particular digital government.
He pointed to the great progress achieved by the GCC countries in the Digital Government Maturity Index data, with Saudi Arabia raking third globally and first regionally in 2022, out of 198 countries.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Executive Affairs, Abdul Hadi Al-Mansouri, announced the launch of the Saudi Visa platform to develop digital services, explaining that the platform was linked to more than 30 public and private entities.
Also on Tuesday, the Education and Training Evaluation Commission unveiled the “Tamayoz” platform, which contributes to providing electronic solutions that facilitate school evaluation procedures, live data for users, and integration with relevant authorities’ systems, in addition to issuing electronic school evaluation reports and the results of various evaluations.
