RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has been ranked first among 140 nations for its digital competitiveness as it invests heavily in the technology sector.
The Kingdom beat France, Indonesia and China to claim top spot among the G20 member states covered by the World Competitiveness Report, according to a statement carried by SPA. The findings were based on data provided by the World Economic Forum and the report analyzed how much progress countries had made relative to their global peers in the last three years.
“There are two main drivers,” said Philip Meissner, founder of the European Center for Digital Competitiveness, which compiled the study. “The champions in our report have a clear strategic vision that they swiftly implement and the second is that they all invest a lot in startups, in future technologies and in innovation in general.
Technology is a key driver of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 blueprint for economic and social reform. As the Kingdom seeks to reduce its reliance on the volatile oil industry it has become an increasingly high profile investor in global technology companies and encourages more of its graduates to pursue careers in the sector.
Within the G20 countries, Saudi Arabia was the top digital riser, while India and Italy fell significantly behind.
“Saudi Arabia’s outperformance can be mainly explained by its “ICT Strategy 2023”, which was launched in 2018 to transform the kingdom into a digital and technological powerhouse,” the report said. “Furthermore, the smart city project NEOM, to which the government allocated $500 billion, also highlights aspirations around the “Saudi Vision 2030.”
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Iran and Lebanon dropped significantly, although the region in general performed well with nine out of 14 countries improving their relative digital competitiveness.
Morocco and Saudi Arabia improved the most in the "ecosystem" and "mindset" dimensions, respectively.
Iran’s decline was mainly driven by the ecosystem dimension, while it also scored poorly on the mindset measure.
Saudi Arabia tops G20 digital competitiveness rankings
https://arab.news/5jaue
Saudi Arabia tops G20 digital competitiveness rankings
- The Kingdom beat France, Indonesia and China to claim top spot among the G20 member states
- Elsewhere in the Middle East, Iran and Lebanon dropped significantly
Uzbekistan’s $220m education project signals shift toward skills-driven systems: GPE CEO
RIYADH: Uzbekistan’s $220 million education reform deal reflects a growing global shift to align schooling systems with economic transformation, according to Global Partnership for Education CEO Laura Frigenti.
Speaking to Arab News on the sidelines of the Human Capability Initiative 2025 in Riyadh, Frigenti said the agreement, signed with the Islamic Development Bank and the Uzbek government, aims to help the country “accelerate that process of transformation.”
Fully aligned with Uzbekistan’s national education strategies, this project aims to enhance the quality and efficiency of the education system while supporting the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4.
“Uzbekistan is a country that has a very well-functioning, in a way, education system because under the Soviet Union, education was a big priority,” she said.
“At the same time, [it] was a system that was designed thinking about a world that doesn’t exist anymore. And so, because they are moving very quickly at transforming their own education, they do want to have resources to accelerate that process of transformation and that is the sense of, you know, of the project that we signed today,” Frigenti told Arab News.
The $220.25 million “Smart Education” program includes $160.25 million from IsDB, a $40 million grant from GPE, and a $20 million contribution from the Government of Uzbekistan. The project is already under implementation, with early work focused on school construction and partnerships with UNICEF and UNESCO.
“It’s also a project that is part of the process of finding innovative instruments to finance education,” Frigenti said. “Education, as I’m sure you know, is a very expensive type of sector that, until now has been basically mainly funded either through domestic financing or with the development assistance resources.”
Education for growth
Frigenti emphasized that education systems must shift to meet the needs of evolving economies, and focus on producing skills that are needed to make society progress and facilitate process of growth and so on.
Saudi Arabia, she noted, has made significant headway in this area.
“Saudi Arabia has been understanding this connection between skills and economic growth very well and they have invested in this over the past couple of decades significantly,” Frigenti said.
“Other countries need to get to that and so the kind of things that we are trying to do is to see how can this re-alignment of education with the needs of the economy be translated for countries that do not have the same resource base of Saudi Arabia.”
She added: “And this is where we are working on issues related to financing of the sector, efficiency in the administration of the resources, etcetera.”
Women’s workforce gains
Frigenti also highlighted Saudi Arabia’s progress in gender inclusion.
“I think having a very clear political vision that sets a specific target, like 50 percent of the labor force needs to be female, as in the Vision 2030, and then having the ability of designing a set of policies and programs that leads to that results in record time — that is quite an extraordinary result,” she said.
Zooming out, she described the Kingdom’s broader economic transition as strategic and well-resourced.
“Saudi Arabia is a country that has several strong things going for it. First one, there is a clear vision of where the country, you know, needs to go — and the country needs to go toward an economy that is more diversified, that is not depending on fossil fuels and where you know that there is a whole range of new activities that needs to be started and stimulated.”
She added: “The second part is that to be able to get to that different type of economy, you need a different type of skills. You need people that can do different things, people that can work in services, for example, people that can work in manufacturing and so on and so forth.”
The CEO went on to say: “And then you need to have the resources that on one hand create this skill mix and on the other hand, put in place the infrastructures that allow this to happen. That is rather unique.”
Young population
Frigenti sees Saudi Arabia’s youth bulge as a pivotal advantage. “The very young workforce is accessing the labor market and is going through the education system at this time. So all this has been an exceptionally fertile ground for transforming the education system on one side, but the economy on the other in a very quick time.”
She said they had created “a working group, a forum” that brings together ministers of education, heads of major technology companies, and key government players — with Saudi Arabia playing a particularly strong role.
According to her, the Kingdom wanted not only to contribute its experiences but also to learn from others. “Attention to technology and the role it can play in education is something that I feel is going to be very much at the center of the education portion of the Vision 2050,” she said, adding that this would be highly relevant going forward.
She concluded by saying that Saudi Arabia is actively looking to share and absorb best practices globally.
Frigenti also emphasized that Saudi Arabia is eager to engage in a global exchange of best practices — sharing what has worked for them while also learning from successful experiences elsewhere. “They are very keen on having a kind of exchange with the rest of the world around good practice, what works and what doesn’t work,” she said.
“Events like HCI 2025 are just an example,” the CEO concluded.
Oil Updates — crude extends decline as US-China trade war weighs on global growth outlook
TOKYO/SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell on Monday on concerns the escalating trade war between the US and China would weaken global economic growth and dent fuel demand.
Brent crude futures were down 22 cents, or 0.34 percent, at $64.54 a barrel at 10:22 a.m. Saudi time. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were trading at $61.28 a barrel, down 22 cents, or 0.36 percent.
Both contracts have lost about $10 a barrel since the start of the month as a trade war between the world’s two largest economies has intensified.
Goldman Sachs expects Brent to average $63 and WTI to average $59 for the remainder of 2025 and sees Brent averaging $58 and WTI $55 in 2026.
It sees global oil demand in the fourth quarter of 2025 rising by just 300,000 barrels per day year-on-year, “given the weak growth outlook,” analysts led by Daan Struyven said in a note, adding that the demand slowdown is expected to be the sharpest for petrochemical feedstocks.
Beijing increased its tariffs on US imports to 125 percent on Friday, hitting back against President Donald Trump’s decision to raise duties on Chinese goods and raising the stakes in a trade war that threatens to upend global supply chains.
Trump on Saturday granted exclusions from steep tariffs on smartphones, computers and some other electronics largely imported from China, but US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.
The trade war has heightened worries that unsold exports could continue driving domestic Chinese prices down.
“Inflation data from China were a window into an economy that is not in shape for a trade fight. Consumer prices fell for a second month in a row in year-on-year terms, while producer prices chalked up their 30 percent straight fall,” Moody’s Analytics said in a weekly note, referring to data released on April 10.
As companies prepare for a possible decline in demand, US energy firms last week cut oil rigs by the most in a week since June 2023, lowering the total oil and natural gas rig count for a third consecutive week, according to Baker Hughes.
Potentially supporting oil prices, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Friday that the US could stop Iran’s oil exports as part of Trump’s plan to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program.
Both countries held “positive” and “constructive” talks in Oman on Saturday and agreed to reconvene next week in a dialogue meant to address Tehran’s escalating nuclear program, officials said over the weekend.
No intention of responding to tariffs imposed by Trump administration — Pakistan finmin
- Islamabad was slapped with 29% tariff rate before Trump’s 90-day temporary pause
- 10% blanket duty on almost all US imports will remain in effect, the White House has said
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said Islamabad was concerned about new tariffs imposed by the US administration of President Donald Trump but had no intentions of imposing reciprocal taxes, BBC reported on Sunday.
Islamabad would have been slapped with a 29% tariff rate before Trump’s temporary suspension announcement on Wednesday. A 10% blanket duty on almost all US imports will remain in effect, the White House has said.
“There is a minimum tariff of 10% and then there is an additional tariff, I think we need to talk about this issue,” Aurangzeb said in an interview to the BBC.
In response to a question about reciprocal tariffs, he said: “If your question is whether we are going to give any response [to the US] in return, the answer is no.”
“There is a situation of uncertainty, and we all have to think about how to move forward with this new world order,” the finance minister added.
When asked if he felt Pakistan was losing out in the tug-of-war between the US and China, he said Washington had been a “strategic partner” of Pakistan for a long time, not just in trade but also in other sectors, while relations with China were important in their own right.
A study by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) entitled ‘Impact of Unilateral Tariff Increase by United States on Pakistani Exports’ said this month when added to the existing 8.6% Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariff, the total duty after the imposition of the 29% tariff could reach 37.6%. This would likely result in a 20-25% decline in Pakistani exports to the US, translating into an annual loss of $1.1-1.4 billion, with the textile sector bearing the brunt of the blow.
The textile sector in Pakistan generates about $17 billion in exports and is the largest employer in the country, according to the Pakistan Textile Council. The industry is expected to face significant challenges from the tariffs, with potential losses of up to $2 billion in textile exports estimated by experts if the 29% tariff rate is reinstated after Trump’s 90-day pause ends.
Despite the risks, the PIDE reports also view the tariffs crisis as an “opportunity for strategic transformation.”
In the short term, it recommended that Pakistan engage in high-level diplomatic efforts to highlight the mutual costs of the tariffs and preserve long-standing trade relations. In the long term, it called for the need to diversify both export products and markets, seeing destinations such as the European Union, China, Asean nations, Africa and the Middle East as offering growth potential in sectors like IT, halal food, processed foods and sports goods.
Saudi Arabia eyes $31.6bn space economy as sector gains momentum
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s space economy reached $8.7 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $31.6 billion by 2035, according to a new study.
The Space Market Report 2025, released by the Communications, Space and Technology Commission, stated that the growth encompasses all value-added activities and industries derived from technologies and services, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 12 percent.
The Kingdom’s space market—focused on commercial services and infrastructure—was valued at $1.9 billion in 2024 and is forecast to reach $5.6 billion by 2035, supported by increased investment in technologies and infrastructure.
The report aims to chart the growth trajectory of the domestic and global space sectors, while also supporting market development, enhancing competitiveness, and identifying investment opportunities.
CST Gov. Mohammad Al-Tamimi stated that the strong support from wise leadership is accelerating investment, infrastructure development, and the enabling of national talents.
He added that these efforts contribute to the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and aim to establish a competitive, sustainable space economy both regionally and internationally.
Al-Tamimi also said the analysis is part of CST’s continued work to support the space sector as a new economic driver, contributing to the Kingdom’s global standing in technology and innovation.
He described the publication as a valuable resource for decision-makers, investors, and entrepreneurs to understand future trends and promising growth opportunities in the sector.
The study highlights several movements shaping the space industry, including the growth of Earth observation data analysis, infrastructure services, integrated communications systems, and advanced sensing technologies.
It also notes the increasing development and deployment of small satellites and the expanding role of the private sector in both local and international space markets.
Globally, the space economy is projected to grow from $687 billion in 2024 to $1.8 trillion by 2035, representing a CAGR of 9 percent.
The global space market is forecast to increase from $176 billion to $377 billion in the same period, with a CAGR of 7 percent.
Balanced growth beyond Riyadh vital to Vision 2030, says MBSC dean
RIYADH: As Saudi Arabia accelerates its economic diversification efforts under Vision 2030, ensuring balanced regional development is crucial, according to a senior academic.
Zeger Degraeve, dean of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College of Business & Entrepreneurship, emphasized the importance of spreading development beyond Riyadh during an interview with Arab News on the sidelines of the Human Capability Initiative in the capital.
“Economic development of the Kingdom outside of the capital city of Riyadh is critical,” Degraeve said. “That still is the intent of KAEC. It’s also the intent of NEOM… you have to bring the whole city along in an economic development process, the whole country.”
He drew parallels with the UK, pointing to regional disparities as a factor in Brexit. “It’s one of the reasons for Brexit, for instance, because of the imbalance in economic development between London and the rest of the UK,” he added.
Degraeve also underscored the role of education in driving sustainable growth, noting that the sector is key to preparing young Saudis for leadership and innovation in a diversified economy.
“Education is a critical strategic sector in Saudi Arabia, with 36 million people and 70 percent below 30,” he noted. “There’s an enormous market that underlines the importance of the sector.”
MBSC is experiencing rapid growth in student enrollment, signaling strong demand for high-quality academic programs aligned with Saudi Arabia’s evolving economic landscape.
“Four years ago, we graduated 40 students and the next year we graduated 100 students. That was already two and a half times the size of the school,” said Degraeve. “But the year after we graduated 320 students… and this year we have graduated 480 students.”
“That’s an enormous growth which shows the market interest in premium business education in the Kingdom,” he added.
Degraeve credited the surge to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 initiative, which he said has inspired young Saudis to seek world-class business education that equips them for a dynamic future.
“It is Vision 2030,” he said. “The Saudi youth is really inspired by the business future of the Kingdom… and they are looking for good world-class business education. Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College provides that alternative.”
In response to rising demand across the country, MBSC has expanded its reach through regional partnerships and diversified program delivery.
“Since 2021, we work in partnership with STC Academy to offer our executive MBA program, or Master in Management and a Master in Finance programs here in Riyadh,” Degraeve said.
He continued: “Through Riyadh, we have access to Dammam as well. We are offering programs in KAEC also, which allow us to access Makkah and Madinah.”
The college’s modular program format has also made it easier for working professionals to pursue advanced education without stepping away from their careers.
“It’s a format where students fly in, stay for four days in the program, four days per month over the weekend, and then they are back in the full-time employment,” he explained.
Degraeve emphasized that MBSC’s mission is closely aligned with the Kingdom’s drive to unlock new economic value and diversify its economy.
“The main aim of Vision 2030 is diversification of Saudi’s economy,” he said. “You diversify an economy by taking many, many, many initiatives, value-creating initiatives in a wide range of businesses and industries.”
“Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College develops leaders,” he added. “Leaders do essentially two things… they think about new value-creating initiatives… but that’s not sufficient. Leadership also requires us to act. We sharpen… our students’ execution skills.”
To date, the college has graduated more than 1,200 students, whom Degraeve described as “leaders for the future of the Kingdom.”
He also stressed the importance of preparing students for success on the global stage.
“Actually, we have a duty. It’s a responsibility for us to connect with international organizations,” he said.
Degraeve added: “We make them especially effective to work in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East region… but business is a global activity.”
MBSC has partnered with leading international institutions, including Babson College in the US and Oxford University in the UK, to strengthen its global outlook and educational offerings.
