Fundamental Digital Policies

Saudi Arabia's digital transformation journey is guided by a comprehensive set of fundamental policies. These policies align with Saudi Vision 2030 and international best practices, emphasizing openness, digital inclusion, citizen participation, privacy, and cybersecurity. Together, they enable transparent governance, empower citizens, and foster innovation across all sectors.

Saudi Vision 2030 is a bold and transformative plan for shaping the future of Saudi Arabia. Launched under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and driven by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Vision 2030 lays out a clear roadmap to harness the country's resources and potential to build a vibrant society, a thriving economy, and an ambitious nation.

Saudi Arabia has embraced this journey in alignment with the global movement towards sustainable development initiated by the United Nations in 2015. Saudi Arabia's strategic geographic, economic, and religious position and commitment to science and innovation serve as a strong foundation for achieving these ambitious goals. Since its launch in 2016, Vision 2030 has delivered a series of remarkable achievements. Comprehensive reforms have transformed the public sector, strengthened the economy, and enhanced the quality of life for citizens. Despite the challenges, these reforms have enriched the country's development experience, paving the way for a more diverse and sustainable economy.

A key driver of this transformation is the National Transformation Program (NTP). The NTP plays a central role in building the necessary infrastructure and creating an enabling environment for the public, private, and non-profit sectors to achieve Vision 2030's objectives. The program focuses on enhancing governance, supporting digital transformation, empowering the private sector, fostering economic partnerships, promoting social development, and ensuring the sustainability of vital resources.

Saudi Arabia is committed to the principles of openness, transparency, and accountability in government. Citizens and businesses have reliable and timely access to government information, data, and services. They can request government-held information, explore government datasets, track budget spending, and participate in public consultations on laws, policies, and strategies.

To guarantee these rights and ensure transparent governance, Saudi Arabia has introduced several legal instruments and policies:

• Freedom of Information Policy
• Freedom of Information Regulations

• Open Data Policy
• Open Data Regulations

• Government Tenders and Procurement Law
• Implementing regulations

• Basic Statue of Governance
• Annual Laws for Budget Approvals

• Council of Ministers decision No. (476) dated 15/7/1441 H

In line with Vision 2030 and national regulations on open government, Saudi Arabia has launched several digital platforms to enable public access to information and enhance citizen engagement:

• Unified National Platform GOV.SA: Serves as a single source of facilitation and assistance for citizens, residents, business owners, and visitors. Offering comprehensive access to government services and information, the platform is positioned as the primary gateway for interacting with Saudi government entities. Its user-friendly design ensures an intuitive experience, providing reliable and timely information about new policies, regulations, news articles, and upcoming events in the country. The platform is updated daily to meet users' needs with the most current information.
• Open Data Portal: Acts as a centralized database for open government data, promoting transparency, encouraging electronic participation, and stimulating innovation. The platform provides a central access point where users can find, download, and utilize datasets published by ministries and government entities. Citizens can explore a wide variety of datasets by organization, group, tag, or format. Additionally, users can submit dataset requests, prompting government agencies to release new datasets. The portal is updated daily with newly published data, ensuring its relevance and usefulness.
• Public Procurements Portal Etimad: serves as a key component of Saudi Arabia's e-government initiatives. The platform streamlines and consolidates the bidding and procurement processes across all government sectors, enhancing transparency and fairness. Through Etimad, users can access government tenders, receive invitations, download tender documents, submit bids, and track the awarding of contracts, all through a fully digital process. The portal is updated daily with new tenders and awarded contracts, ensuring transparency and accountability.
• Annual Budget Statements and Performance Reports: Managed by the Ministry of Finance, this platform provides access to Saudi Arabia's annual budget, along with quarterly updates, citizen's reports, and performance reports. These resources reinforce fiscal transparency by enabling the public to review budget data and government expenditures. In addition, Government Performance Indicators (GPIs) and the budgets of individual ministries are made available through the platform. Reports and updates are published quarterly, offering an ongoing view of government financial performance.
• E-Participation Platform (Tafaul): Functions as a centralized engagement space for citizens, residents, civil society organizations, and the private sector to participate in consultations, provide feedback, and contribute to co-creation initiatives on general (non-legal) issues. The platform encourages users to share their views on upcoming policies, strategies, and initiatives, as well as provide input on government services and co-develop innovative solutions. Tafaul is updated daily with new initiatives open for consultation and publishes the outcomes of completed consultations.
• Public Consultation Platform for Laws and Regulations (Istitlaa): Provides a centralized space for citizens and stakeholders to engage in the legislative process by reviewing and commenting on new proposals for laws and regulations before approval. The platform hosts all current (open) and future (planned) proposals, encouraging public participation and transparency. Users can also access archived consultations to see how feedback has influenced adopted legislation. Istitlaa is updated daily with new initiatives open for consultation and publishes the results of concluded consultations.

The Digital Government Authority (DGA) has launched the "Inclusive Government Program" to provide integrated digital services to the government sector in Saudi Arabia. The objective is to encourage the use of infrastructure and shared applications, in addition to raising the level of data exchange among government entities and achieving integration between them to enable and accelerate sustainable digital government transformation. It seeks to provide a better digital experience through unified platforms and applications, in addition to developing and operating comprehensive government platforms through a set of technologies that enable the authorities to develop, exchange, and link services without the need to redesign, test, and run the same platforms: an effective platform for digital inclusion.

All citizens and residents in Saudi Arabia have equal rights to get easy and affordable access to the Internet and digital government services and actively participate in the consultations and decision-making processes. Saudi Arabia has implemented several projects and initiatives related to connectivity, availability, and affordability, thus enhancing the accessibility of government portals and services and increasing digital literacy and skills. More importantly, the country adopted special initiatives and measures to ensure meaningful connectivity and access to eGovernment services, building digital literacy and skills for vulnerable groups, such as women, youth, elderly, people with disabilities, low-income citizens, migrants, etc.

The third pillar of the Vision 2030 objectives, "An ambitious nation," directly refers to the benefits and needs of the citizens' engagement and active participation in policy creation and decision-making. It calls for all government entities to increase transparency and open their information to allow citizens to receive accurate, appropriate, and on-time information. Moreover, as a Vision Realization Program, the National Transformation Program identifies several objectives directly focused on eParticipation and citizen engagement, including vulnerable groups. These objectives include:

• Objective 13: Foster values of equity & transparency.
• Objective 14: Improve the quality of services provided to citizens.
• Objective 23: Develop the eGovernment.
• Objective 34: Strengthen the Communication Channels with Citizens and Business Community.

The ICT Sector Strategy also addresses the importance of digital inclusion. The Second theme, "Increase local content," directly refers to the need for advanced technology, digital knowledge, and awareness among citizens and residents. It also highlights the need for increasing female participation in the ICT sector.

The Digital Government Strategy also addresses the issue of improving the overall eParticipation environment through Strategic Objective 1.2. Strengthen Saudi citizen engagement to increase trust in government. For this purpose, the strategy aims to increase citizens' involvement by placing them at the center of government and engaging them in service design and policymaking. The Strategy outlines one specific Initiative 1.2B Promote public consultations and E-Participation.

To promote Digital inclusion, the Strategy defines two strategic objectives:

• Strategic Objective 6.2: Foster Capabilities and Skills and Promote Digital Culture.
• Strategic Objective 6.3: Enable Change Management, Communication and Governance.

The Digital Government Policy also sets the overall direction for achieving sustainable long-term government digital transformation in the country. The first pillar (component) of the Policy is dedicated to Engagement, which requires the participation of and collaboration with institutions from the government, the private sector, civil society, and benefi¬ciaries so they can provide valuable inputs for digital government implementation. The Engagement Pillar comprises the following six principles: Transparency, Collaboration, Data and privacy, Information sharing, Innovative Government Culture, and Inclusion.

This is incorporated into the digital-by-default initiatives with alternative access points and specific life events and personas, e.g., youth, elderly, residents, migrants, low-income households, rural areas, women, etc. It is part of the design standard to target the needs of end-users. Direct engagement initiatives are pursued (Tafaul, Watani, eConsultations Portal, Tawasel, Private Sector Feedback Platform, etc.). Indirectly, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), user ratings, and feedback on portals, pages, and services are monitored and combined with input via call and service centers for continuous service improvement. Similarly, the many social media profiles maintained by authorities proactively provide information to various user communities, albeit the two-way dialogue is still in its infancy in the country.

Empowering women and other vulnerable groups is central to the Vision 2030. In line with the UN SDGs, Vision 2030, and the National Transformation Program, the KSA government is implementing specific initiatives and measures for building digital literacy skills for women and other vulnerable groups.

Some of the current programs and initiatives include the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Project for General Education Development (Tatweer Project 2007-2023), Digital Skill Framework (DSF), Women Empowerment Program in Technology, Digital Giving Initiative' Attaa Digital,' Cyberbullying e-Learning courses for children and parents, Misk Foundation, Think Tech Initiative, etc.

All these programs encourage and ensure equal participation of women and other vulnerable groups. Government authorities or partner organizations implementing the programs are legally obliged to provide physical and web accessibility to people with disabilities. All programs are free of charge and are available for children and people from vulnerable groups (migrants, low-income families, etc.).

Some of these programs and initiatives were recognized with international awards and prizes:

• The Women Empowerment Program in Technology won the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) award in 2018.
• Digital Giving Initiative' Attaa Digital' won the 2020 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prize awarded by the ITU in the category of cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity, and local content.
• Schools Connectivity Project won the award in category C2: Information and Communications Infrastructure at the WSIS Forum in 2013.
• Women are encouraged to become proactive and e-participants.

Saudi Arabia also works to ensure digital inclusion in rural areas. The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) are implementing the Wireless Broadband (WBB) initiative to serve rural and remote areas in the country, bridging the digital divide and enabling inclusion, contributing to future prosperity to those communities. Starting in 2018, the WBB offers ICT services with an average internet access speed of 10 Mbps per rural household, regardless of location within the targeted areas. The objective is to ensure broadband access to about 3000 remote localities, covering more than 450k households and 2.57 million inhabitants.

Award: The Digital Giving Initiative won the 2020 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prize, awarded by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in the Information and Communication Infrastructure category.

Saudi Arabia recognizes that active, constructive dialogue between the government, citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders is essential to achieving the goals of Vision 2030. Digital engagement and participation provide key channels for individuals to express their views, contribute ideas, and offer feedback on government initiatives, legislation, and services. Effective e-Participation strengthens transparency, fosters innovation, and builds trust between the government and society.

Saudi Arabia continues to expand and enhance its e-participation initiatives, using its advanced ICT infrastructure to enable more inclusive engagement in public policymaking and service design. These efforts place citizens at the center of governance by offering secure and accessible platforms to participate in shaping public decisions.

Saudi Arabia's e-participation framework aims to:

• Provide transparent and inclusive channels for public consultation and engagement.
• Enhance the quality of laws, policies, and services through citizen input.
• Empower citizens, businesses, and civil society to play an active role in governance.
• Promote accountability and foster trust in public institutions.
• Support innovation by incorporating diverse perspectives and solutions.

To institutionalize public engagement, the Council of Ministers issued No. (476) dated 15/7/1441 H, which mandates public consultations on new laws and regulations. The National Competitiveness Center (NCC) was tasked with implementing this framework through the creation of the Rules and Regulations Support Unit, which is responsible for:

• Establishing and managing a unified e-consultation platform for gathering feedback from the public and government agencies.
• Preparing and circulating survey forms to assess regulatory impacts and collect public input.
• Providing analysis and visualizations of consultation results to government project owners.
• Promoting awareness of the importance of public consultations and fostering a culture of civic engagement.

The Unified Public Consultation Platform ensures that legislative proposals are subject to transparent and inclusive review, allowing citizens and stakeholders to contribute directly to developing new policies and regulations.

Saudi Arabia places a strong emphasis on ensuring inclusive digital participation. Efforts focus on guaranteeing meaningful access and engagement for women, youth, people with disabilities, elderly citizens, migrants, and low-income communities. Several targeted measures are in place:

• Connectivity: Universal Internet access has been prioritized, ensuring 100% of individuals in the country, including women and vulnerable groups, are connected (Source: ITU, 2021).
• Accessibility: All government websites and digital services comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards. This ensures government portals are usable by People with Disabilities and accessible across different devices.
• Affordability: Citizens and residents benefit from free-of-charge access to government platforms, including:
  • Public Wi-Fi hotspots
  • Free mobile applications for government services
  • Free distance learning platforms
  • The Schools Connectivity Project provides broadband access to remote areas

Digital Literacy and Skills Development: Multiple initiatives are designed to build digital literacy and skills for all, focusing on vulnerable groups. Programs include: King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Project for General Education Development, Digital Skill Framework (DSF), Women Empowerment Program in Technology, Digital Giving Initiative' Attaa Digital', Cyberbullying e-Learning courses for children and parents, Misk Foundation, ThinkTech, etc.

These initiatives aim to empower women and vulnerable groups to become active digital participants, whether in e-consultations, service design, or policy discussions.

Saudi Arabia has established multiple channels for citizens and stakeholders to participate in public decision-making and contribute feedback. These include:

• Tafaul: The centralized e-Participation Platform, facilitating engagement on government strategies and initiatives.
• Public Consultation Platform for Laws and Regulations: A unified portal for submitting feedback on draft laws, regulations, and policies.
• Sectoral Consultations: Conducted by various ministries and agencies on specific topics, including:
  • Ministry of Education
  • Ministry of Health
  • Ministry of Environment Water and Agriculture
  • Ministry of Human Resource and Social Development
  • Social Development Bank
  • Ministry of Justice
  • Ministry of Commerce
  • Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property
  • Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO)

These platforms enable citizens and residents to express their views on key issues such as social protection, education, healthcare, and employment, with particular attention to the needs and perspectives of vulnerable groups.

The Digital Government Strategy continues to prioritize citizen engagement through its strategic objectives, particularly:

• Objective 1.2: Strengthen Saudi citizen engagement to increase trust in government
• Initiative 1.2B: Promote public consultations and e-participation

As digital engagement evolves, efforts are underway to enhance two-way communication on social media channels, expand consultation practices, and promote a participatory culture that values inclusiveness, transparency, and innovation.

The digital-by-default principle is one of the most crucial principles in Saudi Arabia's digital transformation, as outlined in the National Digital Government Strategy (NDGS) and the Digital Government Regulatory Framework, is the digital-by-default principle. The Saudi government is taking a leading role in developing a digital model aimed at enhancing citizen experiences and making the delivery of services easier, faster, and more efficient. This approach sets digital platforms as the primary communication channel between government agencies and citizens, with an objective to fully implement this model by 2024. The goal is to ensure that government services are accessible by default through digital means, minimizing the need for in-person visits or paper-based processes.

An innovative aspect of this strategy is the adoption of the once-only principle. Under this policy, government agencies do not collect the same data from citizens multiple times. Instead, data is shared securely and efficiently across authorized entities, reducing redundancies and providing a more seamless and integrated experience when accessing public services. This principle not only enhances efficiency but also contributes to the development of a robust digital economy by fostering trust, minimizing administrative burdens, and improving service delivery.

These efforts have been recognized internationally. In 2020, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) awarded Saudi Arabia the Government Leadership Award in acknowledgment of its policies and regulations that support the digital economy, stimulate investment and innovation, and contribute to achieving sustainable development goals. The ITU also commended the Kingdom for applying international best practices in areas such as transparency, public engagement, and organizational independence within the ICT sector.

Saudi Arabia recognizes data as a vital national asset, driving its transformation into a global hub for data and AI as a part of the National Strategy for Data and AI (NSDAI). The Strategy prioritizes secure, ethical, and effective data utilization to unlock social and economic value, supported by robust policies and a resilient infrastructure. Key objectives include safeguarding individual privacy, fostering ethical AI development, and enabling data-driven innovation. The Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) and its Implementing Regulations establish a comprehensive legal framework ensuring data processing adheres to strict standards of lawfulness, transparency, and accountability while empowering individuals with rights like data access, correction, and destruction.

The Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA) and its subsidiary, the National Data Management Office (NDMO), lead efforts to uphold Saudi Arabia's data protection objectives. They ensure robust data privacy and security through regulatory frameworks, compliance tools, and stakeholder education. The National Data Governance Platform, a pivotal component of these efforts, provides advanced e-services, such as privacy impact assessments and data breach notifications, to help entities align with PDPL requirements. By fostering a secure, transparent, and innovation-friendly environment, Saudi Arabia is advancing its Vision 2030 goal of becoming a global leader in data governance and ethical AI practices.

Saudi Arabia recognizes cybersecurity as a cornerstone of its national resilience and digital transformation efforts, aligning with its Vision 2030 objectives. The National Cybersecurity Strategy, developed by the National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA), establishes a secure, resilient, and trusted cyberspace to support economic growth, societal development, and innovation. Grounded in six strategic pillars - Unify, Manage, Assure, Defend, Partner, and Build - the Strategy integrates robust policies, cutting-edge technologies, and global best practices to enhance cybersecurity maturity nationwide. Key objectives include safeguarding critical infrastructure, protecting sensitive data, and fostering a culture of cybersecurity awareness and innovation.

The NCA, alongside other national stakeholders, spearheads the implementation of comprehensive frameworks, such as the Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC), and other regulations, such as the Cybersecurity Regulatory Framework (CRF) for the ICT sector. These initiatives set stringent security standards for government entities, Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), and private organizations, ensuring alignment with international standards like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ISO/IEC 27001. Complementing these efforts, platforms like the Haseen National Portal provide advanced cybersecurity services, empowering entities to achieve their security goals. By fostering collaboration and innovation, Saudi Arabia is building a resilient digital ecosystem that enhances trust, safeguards national interests, and drives sustainable economic growth.

The adoption of Saudi Arabia's National Strategy for Data and AI (NSDAI) marked a significant milestone in advancing the digital transformation agenda. The Strategy reflects Saudi Arabia's commitment to harnessing the power of responsible data use and artificial intelligence (AI) to drive sustainable development, strengthen its position as a leading regional and global data and AI hub, and enhance the contribution of the ICT sector to the national economy.

• Ambition: Position Saudi Arabia among the top 15 countries in AI development and application by 2030.
• Skills: Train and qualify more than 20,000 data and AI specialists and experts to meet future demand.
• Partnerships: Foster strategic collaborations with leading AI nations, international organizations, and private sector innovators.
• Investments: Mobilize over USD 20 billion in data and AI initiatives to stimulate research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
• Regulation: Develop and implement a forward-looking, business-friendly regulatory framework aligned with international best practices to support ethical and responsible AI deployment.
• Ecosystem: Build a vibrant and dynamic data and AI ecosystem with over 300 active start-ups by 2030 and create world-class regulatory sandboxes to facilitate the testing and deployment of AI-powered technologies.

The strategy reflects Saudi Arabia's vision to not only adopt AI but also lead in its ethical and innovative application, ensuring that data and AI are leveraged as key enablers for economic growth, public sector efficiency, and improved quality of life.

Saudi Arabia's digital transformation strategy recognizes the rapid and evolving nature of social media platforms and their diverse modalities and applications. While this presents challenges for policymakers, it also offers significant opportunities to enhance citizen engagement and promote e-participation. The speed at which social media tools and techniques develop can pose risks but also create avenues for more responsive and dynamic policymaking. To harness these opportunities effectively, public institutions must adopt agile approaches in embracing new platforms and applications and leveraging data and analytics to identify solutions, test ideas, evaluate outcomes, and iterate quickly.

This agility enables government entities to run multiple campaigns and test numerous initiatives simultaneously, adapting to citizens' feedback and evolving needs in real-time. Developing these capabilities allows the public sector to offer more value-added services, respond rapidly to public concerns, and shape future policy directions in alignment with citizens' expectations. Social media's dynamic nature demands continuous attention to technological advancements to ensure these platforms are used widely, efficiently, and strategically.

Digital transformation is considered a national priority in Saudi Arabia under the National Transformation Program (NTP). Social media plays a crucial role as an agile technology tool within this agenda, contributing to broader trends in digital governance. Additionally, the Kingdom's Innovation Strategy identifies digital technology, including social media, as one of the country's top seven national sectors for development and investment.