Kingdom's Fundamental Policies

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Saudi Vision 2030

The Saudi Arabian Vision of 2030 is a major challenge and significant development for the future of the Kingdom. Under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Vision 2030 was launched, a roadmap drawn up by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to employ national resources and determination to realize the goals of this Vision. The Kingdom did not hesitate to embark on a major vision for development in tandem with the United Nations move towards sustainable development in 2015.

In a well-concerted plan to realize such ambitious goals and objectives as specified by the Vision, Saudi Arabia has the strategic importance of both geographical and economic and religious, blended with science and innovation. The determination and persistence of the Kingdom and the Royal Leadership drive the potential and capability of harnessing Saudi potential to achieve Vision 2030 ambitions.

The Vision was launched in 2016, and in a remarkable sequence of achievements in development, great results are making it a reality. Unprecedented reforms were realized in the public sector's operating model, including the economy and society. Many challenges are being faced, which at the same time are enriching development work with professional experiences. Diversification of the Kingdom's investment power created a more diverse and sustainable economy.

An already established program at a very high level called the National Transformation Program is in charge of developing the necessary infrastructure and creating an environment to enable the public, private, and non-profit sectors to realize Vision 2030. This will be accomplished by achieving governance operational excellence, supporting digital transformation, enabling the private sector, developing economic partnerships, promoting social development, and ensuring the sustainability of vital resources.

Open Government

Policies and regulations on openness, transparency and accountability

To achieve the principle of openness, transparency, and accountability, Saudi Arabia has enabled citizens and businesses to access reliable and on-time government information, request government-held information, and access a large number of government datasets. Citizens can also access the latest information about the government budget for the current fiscal year, find more information about the government spending (by entity) and view and participate in all current (open) public procurement procedures. Citizens and businesses can also express their views and opinions on current (open) consultations related to policies, strategies and legislation, provide feedback, or share their ideas with government entities.

To guarantee these rights and regulate the Government's openness, transparency and accountability, Saudi Arabia has adopted the following legal instruments:

Freedom of Information: Guarantees citizens’ right to request and access government-held information and defines the government entities’ obligations in providing such information.

Freedom of Information Policy

Freedom of Information Regulations

Open Data: Regulates the government entities' obligations to publish open datasets on the National open data portal and define the required standards and quality of the datasets.

Open Data Policy

Open Data Regulations

Public Procurements: Regulate government tenders and procurement processes and prevent them from being influenced by personal interests in protecting public funds. The objective is to achieve transparency at every step of the government procurement process.

Government Tenders and Procurement Law

Implementing regulations

Budget transparency: defines the obligations of all government entities to apply the principles of budgetary governance, transparency and accountability.

Basic Statue of Governance

Annual Laws for Budget Approvals

Citizen’s engagement: Imposes mandatory consultations on new legislative proposals and enables citizens’ engagement on the Public Consultation Platform for Laws and Regulations (Istitlaa).

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

Open Government Platforms

In line with the main principles of Vision 2030 on increasing government transparency and openness and national regulation on Open Government, KSA launched several platforms to enable citizens and businesses to access information:

Unified National Platform GOV.SA: A single source of facilitation and assistance to citizens, residents, business owners, and visitors. Offering a vast amount of information, the Platform is positioned as the go-to source of all governmental sources. The portal layout is designed to provide the ultimate user-friendly experience while ensuring users’ needs are satisfied. The portal is updated daily to ensure reliable and on-time information about new policies, regulations, recent news-related articles and upcoming events in the Kingdom.

Open Data Portal: A centralized database of open government data that achieves transparency, encourages electronic participation, and stimulates creativity. The Platform enables users to have a central point of access to find, download and use datasets generated by the ministries and governmental entities in the country. Citizens can access a large number of datasets available on the Open Data Portal and search by organisations, groups, tags or formats of the datasets. Users can also use the dataset request function to ask government agencies to publish new datasets. The portal is updated daily by publishing new datasets.

Public Procurements Portal Etimad: The Electronic Government Procurement System, the Etimad Portal, is one of the cornerstones of the Kingdom’s e-government. It works to consolidate and facilitate the bidding and government procurement process for all government sectors, enhancing transparency amongst government sectors on the one hand and among competing entities on the other. The portal is an entirely digital gateway for posting government tenders, receiving invitations, obtaining fascicles, surveying bids and awarding contracts. The portal is updated daily by publishing new tenders and award contracts.

Annual Budget Statements and Performance Reports: The Ministry of Finance presents Saudi’s annual budget and prepares quarterly reports, citizen’s reports, performance reports, etc, which reinforces transparency and allows everyone to read the budget’s data. Moreover, the government makes the Government Performance Indicators (GPI) available, as well as the budget of each ministry on its website. The portal is updated quarterly by publishing quarterly reports on budget expenditures and performance.

E-Participation Platform (Tafaul): The Platform is a centralized place for citizens' engagement for general (non-legal issues) and aims to engage citizens, residents, civil society, and the public and private sectors in consultation, feedback, and co-creation. The Platform aims to enable users to share their views on upcoming policies, strategies and initiatives, provide input on government information and services, and participate in co-creating innovative solutions and services. The portal is updated daily by publishing new initiatives open for consultations or publishing the finished consultations' outcomes.

Public Consultation Platform for Laws and Regulations (Istitlaa): The Platform is a centralized place for citizens to engage in new proposals for laws and regulations. It enables them to express their views and opinions regarding government laws and regulations before approval. The Platform contains all current (open) and future (planned) proposals and encourages users to share their opinions and thoughts on proposals before approval. Users can also find the outcomes of past (archived) consultations and their impact on the adopted legislation. The portal is updated daily by publishing new initiatives open for consultations or publishing the finished consultations' outcomes.

Digital Inclusion

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 the government entities and achieving integration between them in order 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.

Right of Participation and 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. The Kingdom 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 Kingdom 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.

Digital Inclusion Strategies

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 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 looks to increase the involvement of citizens by placing them at the center of Government by 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 to achieve sustainable long-term government digital transformation in the Kingdom. 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 Kingdom.

Building digital literacy and digital skills for women and other vulnerable groups

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 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. The government authorities or partner organizations implementing the programs are legally obliged to provide physical access and web accessibility for 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:

Women Empowerment Program in Technology won an award from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 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.

Digital Inclusion of Saudi Rural Areas

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 Digital Inclusion of Saudi Rural Areas project and the Wireless Broadband (WBB) initiative to serve rural and remote areas in the Kingdom, 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.

E-Participation

The importance of interactive communication and constructive dialogue between the government and citizens, the business sector, and all other parties is an essential precondition in achieving the objectives of Vision 2030. The Kingdom views digital engagement and participation with great importance as communication channels that the citizens use to express their ideas, opinions, and suggestions on specific topics relevant to our society. Effective e-Participation would provide the government with innovative ideas and constructive suggestions which may enhance the quality of the legislation, policies, strategies, initiatives, and services.

With a growing need for comprehensive adoption of e-Participation, Saudi Arabia has sought to utilize the vast telecommunications network and Internet service present in the country to enable you to participate in formulating solutions to issues of public interest. E-Participation is the cornerstone of providing government services centered around citizens' needs. This comes in addition to utilizing information technology and telecommunications to allow even more community involvement in governance, including designing and implementing government services, constructing policies, and informing decision-making.

Such e-Participation opportunities are made available to citizens for sharing views and opinions securely and reliably. The government public consultation platforms are designed to protect and preserve personal data with the highest information security and privacy standards.

e-Consultations Regulation

To enable citizens' engagement and impose mandatory consultations on new legislative proposals, the Council of Ministers adopted decision No. (476) dated 15/7/1441 H mandating the National Competitiveness Center to establish Rules and Regulations Support Unit in the center to perform the following tasks:

Establishing and supervising the unified electronic platform to solicit the opinions of the public and government agencies.

Preparing survey forms, evaluating the effects, and circulating them to government agencies.

If requested, provide notes and visuals about the survey results to the project owner.

Awareness and dissemination of the culture of the survey of the importance of participating in evaluating the regulatory effects on the projects of laws and regulations and the like.

eParticipation measures for women and other vulnerable groups

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia makes all necessary efforts to ensure digital inclusion in the context of digital participation for all its citizens and residents, including vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, women, youth, the elderly, migrants, etc. To achieve this goal, the Government ensured meaningful connectivity and specific digital literacy and skills measures for all individuals, including women and other vulnerable groups, to enable active citizens' digital participation. Specific measures include:

Connectivity: Building world-class ICT infrastructure that ensured all citizens and residents could have affordable access to the Internet. By 2021, 100% of the Kingdom's individuals (including women and vulnerable groups) are using the Internet. (Source: International Telecommunication Union (ITU)).

Accessibility: All government agencies and service providers in the Kingdom are legally obliged to implement the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards. Compliance with the WCAG standard ensures that online content on the government portals is easy to use and accessible for all users, particularly for People with Disabilities.

Affordability: Ensuring free-of-charge use of the Internet (Public Wi-Fi Hotspots, Free of charge access to mobile applications of government services, Free of charge access to government platforms for Distance learning, and Schools Connectivity projects).

Digital literacy and skills: Implemented plans, strategies, and initiatives that address digital literacy for students, starting from the primary school level and training for teachers. Some initiatives 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.

Government portals for e-Consultations, polls, feedback and suggestions: All citizens and residents, including women and other vulnerable groups, can actively participate in the open consultations and polls or share their innovative ideas with the government using the existing government portals. They can share their views and opinions on general topics or issues targeting vulnerable groups (e.g. social protection, education, health, employment). Some of these platforms include:

Tafaul: Centralized eParticipation Platform

Public Consultation Platform for Laws and Regulations

Public consultations on strategies, initiatives, and services (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, and Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO)).

Data Protection and Privacy

The privacy policy and procedures of the GOV.SA is governed by the Personal data protection law (Royal Decree No. (M/19) dated 1443/2/9 AH), the Main Principles of Personal Information Protection and the Main Principles and General Rules for Sharing Data issued by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and National Data Management Office (NDMO).

The Personal Data Protection Law and its executive regulations set the legal basis for the protection of the rights of individuals regarding the processing of personal data by all entities in the Kingdom, as well as entities outside that process personal data related to individuals residing in the Kingdom using any means, including online personal data processing.

The National Data Management and Personal Data Protection Standards cover 15 Data Management and Personal Data Protection domains. The Standards apply to all government data regardless of form or type, including paper records, emails, data stored in electronic form, voice recordings, videos, maps, photos, scripts, handwritten documents, or other recorded data. The application of the Personal Data Protection Law's provisions and executive regulations is without prejudice to the competencies and tasks of the National Cyber Security Authority as a competent security authority for cybersecurity and its affairs in the Kingdom.

National Strategy for Data and AI

A major step forward was the adoption of a widely anticipated National Strategy for Data and AI (NSDAI). This Strategy reiterates Saudi's commitment to leverage responsible AI in achieving its national digital transformation objectives, solidifying its data and AI hub role, and boosting the ICT sector's contribution to the Kingdom's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The NSDAI strategy, well praised by experts, referred to as ASPIRE includes six main pillars:

Ambition – to be amongst the top 15 countries in the development and application of AI by 2030

Skills – to train and host more than 20,000 data and AI specialists and experts by 2030.

Partnerships – with leading AI nations, international organizations, and private sector institutions.

Investments – of over USD 20 billion in Data and AI

Regulation – to foster a business-friendly regulatory environment based on international best practices.

Ecosystem – of more than 300 active data and AI start-ups hosted in the Kingdom by 2030 and world-class regulatory sandboxes for developing and deploying AI-powered technology.

For more scientific details, please read the following article.

National Cybersecurity Strategy

The rapid growth of technology usage has introduced new Cybersecurity vulnerabilities and cyber threats, which require effective and efficient cybersecurity protection so that networks, information technology, operational technology systems, and related hardware and software components are secured. The need becomes very pressing and urgent to protect services and data from penetration, disruption, modification, entry, use, or exploitation.

The National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) prepared the Kingdom's first National Cybersecurity Strategy to guide the implementation of key initiatives to achieve an appropriate balance between enhancing cybersecurity, raising confidence, and contributing to the Kingdom's growth and prosperity.

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