H.E. Eng. Alswaha: It is with a digital economy that we could supercharge the existing economy and leapfrog to the future, 10% of the global trade today is digital and Saudi is one of the fastest-growing opportunities for digital commerce and trade

August 6, 2019 – Riyadh, KSA:  The Ministry of Communicaitons & IT, the main driver behind the Kingdom-wide digital transformation overhaul of Saudi Arabia, has officially joined the Saudi Emerging Technologies Forum (11-13 November 2019, Burj Rafal Hotel – Riyadh, KSA) as Main Sponsor of the event. Organized by Eyes of Cities in collaboration with The Great Minds Group, the conference is supported by leading entities such as the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, Monshaat, BIAC, DTVC, and others. 
  
Under the visionary leadership of H.E. Eng. Alswaha, the Ministry of Communicaitons & IT is working tirelessly to transform by 2030 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the global leader of the digital economy, powered by a vibrant society of digital sapiens.  
 
As the largest tech conference in the Kingdom, the Saudi Emerging Technologies Forum will be the key platform to uncover the $100+bn investment on digital transformation, celebrate the Vision 2030 digital transformation leaders who are driving the deployment of emerging technologies in the Kingdom and get trained by tech visionaries on specific technologies such as AI, IoT, Blockchain and others. 
 
Chiara Palieri, Director of The Saudi Emerging Technologies Forum commented on the Ministry’s endorsement to the event: “We are honored to have the Ministry of Communicaitons and IT supporting this event, as the key entity in the Kingdom to drive the digital transformation journey of Saudi Arabia. We strongly believe that such a strong ministerial representation will contribute to shaping the narrative on digitization in the Kingdom, further enhanced by the presence of other government entities. 

Ms. Palieri continued: “The Saudi Emerging Technologies Forum will be an unprecedented event, where stakeholder collaboration, brainstorming and a showcase of upcoming plans will contribute to the Vision 2030 realization program.

The key in this conference is to involve government entities as well as C-level executives from large conglomerates to pioneer solutions and enhance the Saudi economy. We are grateful to the Ministry for believing in this event and look forward to collaborating with them to showcase the huge potential of KSA as the future global epicenter in technology”.

The forum will gather over 100 government officials and senior-level executives, more than 40 speakers will be leading 12-panel discussions with the participation of 300 attendees, 60 exhibitors, 10 Certified Technical Workshops, 30 Proof of Concepts & Live Demo Sessions, and a dedicated focus day for IIoT. Furthermore, 10 Pioneers in innovation will be celebrated with Awards of Excellence in recognition of their efforts in digitization.  

At a congress in Barcelona last February, H.E. Eng. Alswaha said: “The Kingdom is transforming at light speed leveraging its factor-based economy, and its leadership as the 80th largest economy to leapfrog into the future powered by digital, powered by our global and regional partners. 

It is an audacious once-in-a-lifetime transformational journey of transforming a nation that is the heart of the Arab & Muslim world and investment super house and a powerhouse, we are talking about a 100 billion dollars already committed in the vision fund making it the largest tech fund available in the globe, a nation that can interconnect three continents 400 million people within a reach of 4 hours”.
 
H.E. continued: “The ambition is to create a vibrant society a thriving economy, and an ambitious nation, these ambitions are underpinned by a national digital agenda, because if we looked about for a way to develop a vibrant society that empower women and enable each one to reach his maximum potential, the answer is a digital society that drives engagement and empowerment in healthcare, education, etc..

“It is with a digital economy that we could supercharge the existing economy and leapfrog to the future, 10% of the global trade today is digital and Saudi is one of the fastest-growing opportunities for digital commerce and trade. A digital government where we have moved from red tape to red carpet, where we’re moving at light speed”.
 
“The kingdom is moving at light speed as we are one of the top 10 fastest growing nations in ecommerce growing at 35% and just crossing the 7.5-billion-dollar market opportunity were projected to prosper 10-million-dollar mark by 2020”.

“We genuinely believe that we live in a time, which no longer the survival of the fittest, but the survival of those that can best reach out and build genuine partnerships, there is something special about us once we partner, we partner for life” H.E. Eng. Alswaha added.
 
The Forum will host a group of world-class speakers and industry leaders from National Digitisation Unit, Ministry of Labour and Social Development, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health,  Ministry of Environment, Water & Agriculture, Monshaat, Capital Market Authority, The Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Aramco and others, to be the first platform of its kind in Saudi Arabia in terms of the diversification and inclusiveness of all domains of future technologies.  

The Saudi Emerging Technologies Forum will be the largest R&D and investment technology event in the region and will showcase the most disruptive technologies set to power cities and economies of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Gathering government entities, C-suite executives from the private sector as well as the top tech players, the conference will exclusively unveil the latest applications of IoT, IIoT, AI, Data Science, Cybersecurity, Cloudification, Blockchain, AR/VR, Robotics, Deep learning (DL), Machine learning (ML) and Coding 4.0 and the role they will play in powering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the global epicentre of tech research & development of the 4th Industrial Revolution.   

The forum will be chaired by Eng. Majed Alshodari, Chief Information Security Officer “CISO” at the Allied Cooperative Insurance Group “ACIG”.

To seize the incredible opportunity of meeting key stakeholders in the Kingdom, there are two ways businesses can get involved: either by showcasing their digital product offering to key Saudi decision makers, or by joining the event as a delegate and seize the unparalleled training opportunities delivered by the world’s top trainers.