Deputy Minister for Technology and Human Capabilities, Ministry of Communications & IT, Dr. Ahmed Al-Thunayan, stressed the importance of the role of emerging technologies in accelerating the unprecedented transformation in Saudi Arabia and achieving a higher contribution to GDP. In the speech delivered on Monday, at the opening of the Emerging Technologies Forum in Riyadh, in the presence of leading local and international technology leaders, Al-Thunayan said: "The technology development strategy has focused on building an attractive ecosystem to invest in emerging technologies, such as IoT, AI, Robotics, Blockchain, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, which have a significant role in supporting digital transformation in sectors such as industry, energy, health, financial and government." "This is driven by the potential of these technologies in enabling entrepreneurship and innovation. He pointed out that the Ministry has worked on some programs and initiatives that will invest in national competencies, multiply the technology market, stimulate digital entrepreneurship and spread the spirit of innovation and creativity, using emerging technologies. Also, he referred to the private sector partnership in stimulating the adoption of emerging technologies through specialized digital innovation labs that produce advanced solutions to address the challenges of innovative digital approaches. "We see the presence of major oil and petrochemical companies, such as Saudi Aramco and SABIC, and the volume of demand as a very important opportunity for the Kingdom to be a regional and global hub for innovative digital solutions and for using cases based on emerging technologies in the fields of energy and petrochemicals. Moreover, mega projects, such as NEOM, Red Sea Islands, etc., are promising opportunities for further adoption of these technologies and a platform for advanced digital solutions based on these technologies, not only regionally but globally". He also pointed out that the Ministry is working to attract promising investments in the emerging technologies sector and create the conditions suitable for its growth and nationalization through several factors, including but not limited to the development of policies and legislation stimulating investment and digital enablers and infrastructures. The Deputy Minister referred to the strategy of the ICT sector, which is recently adopted by the Council of Ministers. It included priorities aiming at developing the digital capabilities of the Kingdom in the ICT field and optimally investing them to grow its future projects in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 and enhance the effectiveness and performance of the public and private sectors by enabling digital transformation and making the Kingdom one of the world's leading countries in the ICT field. Back to the details of the Forum, the sessions of its first edition will be attended by technical specialists who will discuss and address some of the issues, solutions, the latest developments, technologies and applications in this field, such as: IoT, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), AI, Data Science, Internet Security, Cloud computing, Blockchain, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, Robotics, Deep Learning (DL), Machine Learning (ML) and 4.0 Coding. The Forum will also review regional and international case studies, exchange best practices and experiences and present experiences from various international cities, through a series of applied studies presented by a group of leading experts from the participating countries. It is noteworthy that the Forum is accompanied by an international exhibition that creates a new way for international companies to showcase their latest innovative products to the technology sector. — SG
