Riyadh - Mubasher: Oxford Business Group (OBG) recently launched a new COVID-19 Response Report (CRR) to analyse the crucial element that sustained investments in Saudi Arabia’s digital infrastructure and facilitated the successful containment of the coronavirus (COVID-19) spread while progressing with the kingdom’s economic diversification plans.
The report highlights the measurements adopted by Saudi Arabia’s telecoms sector, headed by the Saudi Telecom Company (stc), which not only ensured business continuity throughout lockdown but also smoothed the implementation of flawless work-from-home and remote education practices and carried out digital health initiatives.
With a focus on the telecoms sector, the report captures a comprehensive coverage of the digital infrastructure upgrades introduced in 2019, which elevated mobile internet speeds to the 10th fastest globally and helped stc to meet the noticeably rising demand.
Moreover, the report showed a shift towards digital commerce and remote payments, which accelerated during the lockdown as the country’s largest e-wallet, stcPay, witnessed an annual 30% growth in revenues in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020.
Split into sections, the report provides a detailed analysis of the kingdom’s resilience prior to the pandemic and its readiness to withstand an unexpected shock. Furthermore, it shows the speed with which policies were enacted as well as their effectiveness, alongside the direct impact on the public health and the wider economy.
The GCC country’s promising prospects for economic recovery were also examined, given its sound macro-economic indicators.
As for post-COVID-19 reinvention opportunities, the OBG expects the economic policy to target the industries of the future and digital growth in tandem with the national Vision 2030.
The multi-faceted approach Saudi Arabia used to tackle the pandemic had helped in limiting community transmission, cushioning its impact on businesses and households, and enabled a speedy economic recovery, said OBG’s CEO, Andrew Jeffreys.
“Prudent decisions to invest in the health system and digital infrastructure have paid dividends in these challenging times and helped the kingdom to maintain a consistently low case-fatality rate throughout the pandemic,” he said.
He continued, “Our report also indicates that Saudi Arabia’s efforts to enhance its investment environment, which saw the country rise 30 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index in 2020, will serve it well as it looks to bounce back in the coming months.”
It is noteworthy that the CRR was produced in cooperation with stc.
